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diff --git a/old/62629-0.txt b/old/62629-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 35cf801..0000000 --- a/old/62629-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4172 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Impressions and Experiences of a French -Trooper, 1914-1915, by Christian Mallet - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Impressions and Experiences of a French Trooper, 1914-1915 - -Author: Christian Mallet - -Release Date: July 12, 2020 [EBook #62629] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPRESSIONS, EXPERIENCES OF FRENCH TROOPER *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - -IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF A FRENCH TROOPER, 1914-15 - - - - -[Illustration: NIGHT CHARGE OF THE 22ND DRAGOONS, SEPT. 10-11, 1914.] - -[Illustration: MAP ILLUSTRATING THE ROUTE FOLLOWED BY THE 22ND REGIMENT -OF DRAGOONS.] - - - - - IMPRESSIONS AND - EXPERIENCES OF A - FRENCH TROOPER - 1914-1915 - - BY - CHRISTIAN MALLET - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - 1916 - - COPYRIGHT, 1916 - BY - E. P. DUTTON & CO. - - The Knickerbocker Press, New York - - - - - In Memoriam - - TO MY CAPTAIN - COUNT J. DE TARRAGON - - AND - - TO MY TWO COMRADES - 2ND LIEUT. MAGRIN AND 2ND LIEUT. CLÈRE - - WITH WHOM - - MANY PAGES OF THIS BOOK ARE CONCERNED - - WHO FELL - - ALL THREE ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR - - IN DEFENCE - - OF THEIR COUNTRY - - “_Dragons que Rome eut pris pour des Légionnaires._” - - - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE - - Frontispiece 9 - - The 22nd Regiment of Dragoons 11 - - CHAPTER - - I.—Mobilisation—Farewells—We leave Rheims 13 - - II.—Across the Border into Belgium—Life on Active - Service from Day to Day—After the Germans - had Passed through—The Retreat 26 - - III.—How we Crossed the German Lines—The Charge - of Gilocourt—The Escape in the Forest of - Compiègne 43 - - IV.—Verberie the Centre of the Rally—The Epic of - a Young Girl—Mass in the Open Air—From Day - to Day 74 - - V.—The Two Glorious Days of Staden 97 - - VI.—The Funeral of Lord Roberts—Nieuport-Ville—In - the Trenches—Ypres and the Neighbouring - Sectors—I Transfer to the Line 110 - - VII.—The Attack at Loos 144 - - Index 165 - - - - -FRONTISPIECE - - -This picture by Carrey represents the night charge of a squadron of 22nd -Dragoons against German trenches near Compiègne. During the night of -September 9th, the squadron leader, who had received orders to endeavour -to intercept and capture a large enemy convoy, suddenly came under a -hot fire from German trenches. In the darkness it was impossible to -choose his country, but the position before him must be attacked, and, -signalling the charge, he led his squadron at the trenches. As the first -line rose to the jump the Germans scuttled out in panic, only to be -ridden down and destroyed. With the 22nd are shown two troopers of the -4th Dragoon Guards, belonging to the 2nd British Cavalry Brigade. Both -had fought at Mons, but during the retirement had lost their regiment, -and after wandering about for some days fallen in with the 22nd Dragoons -and fought for some weeks in their ranks. Whilst still under heavy -fire, one of these Englishmen, throwing the reins of his horse to his -companion, dismounted and ran to and rescued a French trooper whose -horse had fallen dead and pinned him to the ground; on rejoining their -own regiment their French commanding officer gave them the following -certificate of service: - - “I, the undersigned, certify that T..... and B....., troopers, - belonging to the 4th Dragoon Guards, lost themselves in the - neighbourhood of Péronne on the 20th August, and joined up with - my squadron, and have since then formed part of it and engaged - in all its operations. On the night September 10-11 my squadron - received orders to capture a German convoy, and found itself - surrounded by the retreating enemy. - - “T..... and B..... took part in a charge by night against - entrenched infantry, and helped in the fighting on the - outskirts of the forest of Compiègne. - - “They are both men of fine courage and high training, and have - given me every satisfaction. - - “(_Signed_) A. DE S., - - “_Captain_, 22nd Dragoons.” - - (_Le Temps._) - - - - -THE 22ND REGIMENT OF DRAGOONS - - - AUSTERLITZ 1805 - JENA 1806 - EYLAU 1807 - OPORTO 1809 - -The 22nd Regiment of Dragoons was raised in 1635 under the name of “The -Orleans Regiment,” and took part from 1639 to 1756 in all the great wars -in which the French were engaged before the Revolution. From 1793 to 1814 -the regiment was continually at work, first under the Republic and then -in Napoleon’s armies. - -It saw service in the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, 1794-1796; the -Army of the Rhine, 1800; the Grande-Armée, 1805; in the war in Spain, -1808-1813; the Campaign in Saxony, 1813; the Campaign in France, 1814. - -The regiment was disbanded in May, 1815, and was not raised again until -September, 1873. - - - - -Impressions and Experiences of a French Trooper, 1914-15 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -MOBILISATION—FAREWELLS—WE LEAVE RHEIMS - - -Of all my experiences, of all the unforgettable memories which the war -has woven with threads of fire unquenchable in my mind, of all the hours -of feverish expectancy, joy, pain, anguish and glorious action, none -stands out—nor ever will—more clearly in my recollection than the day -when we marched out of Rheims. Nothing remains, except a confusion of -disconnected memories of the days of waiting and of expectation, days -nevertheless when one’s heart beat fast and loud. A bugle-call sounding -the “fall-in” lifts the curtain on a new act in which, the empty years -behind us, we are spurring our horses on into the eternal battle between -life and death. - -On the thirtieth of July, 1914, I did not believe in the possibility -either of war or of mobilisation—nor even of partial mobilisation—and I -refused to let my thoughts dwell on it. - -The good folk of Rheims, excited and anxious, gathered from time to -time in dense crowds outside the building of the Société Générale, on -the walls of which the latest telegrams were posted up, then broke up -into knots of people who discussed the situation with anxiety and even -consternation. At the Lion d’Or, where I turned in for dinner on the -terrace under the very shadow of the cathedral, I called for a bottle of -Pommery, saying jocularly that I must just once more drink champagne; a -message telephoned from a big Paris newspaper reassured me, and in the -peaceful quiet of a fine summer’s night I returned to my quarters with a -light heart. - -As I was turning into bed I caught a glimpse through the barrack window -of the two Gothic towers of the cathedral, standing high above the city -as if in the act of blessing and guarding it. - -All was quiet: the silence was only broken from time to time by the cry -of the swallows as they skimmed through the clear air. - -War, I repeated to myself, it is foolish even to think of, and this talk -of war is but the outcome of some disordered pessimistic minds; and with -that I went to sleep on my hard little webbed bed ... for the last time. - -Towards midnight I woke with a start, as though someone had shaken me -roughly. Yet all was still: the barracks were rapt in sleep. Near by -me only the loud and heavy breathing of the twelve men who made up the -number occupying the room could be heard, as I lay on my back, wide -awake, waiting, for I now felt that the signal would surely come which -should turn the barracks into a very hive of bees. - -Five minutes passed—perhaps ten—then a deafening bugle call which made -the very walls vibrate, calling first the first squadron, growing in -volume as it called the second, louder still the third, like the roar -of some beast of prey as it summoned ours; then it died away as it got -farther off across the barrack square where the fifth squadron was -quartered. - -It was the call to arms. - -The sleepy troopers, half awake, sat up in their beds with a -start—“Hulloa!—what? What is the matter?... Are we really mobilising?” - -Then followed the sound of heavy boots in the corridors, heavy knocks on -the doors, the silence of the night was a thing of the past and had given -place to deafening clatter. - -In a few seconds every man was on his feet without any clear idea as -to what was forward. The sergeant-major called to me: “Mallet—run and -warn the officers of the squadron to strap on their mess tins with their -equipment and assemble in barracks as quickly as possible.” - -So it’s serious, is it? and in a flash the truth, the very reverse of -what I had been trying to believe, forced itself upon me and paralysed -all other power of thought. Whether it breaks out to-morrow or in a -month’s time, it is war—relentless war—that I seem to see like a living -picture revealed. - -The impression masters my mind as I turn each corner of the dark streets -and open spaces, and the cathedral with its twin towers, so peacefully -standing there, is transformed into a giant fortress watching over the -safety of the country-side. - -A man comes out of a house on the _place_ and runs after me, I hear his -heavy shoes striking the pavement behind me; breathless he blurts out the -question, “Is war declared?” - -“War ... yes ... that is to say, I don’t know.” - -I continue on my way to carry out my orders with enough time left to run -up to my own rooms and get some money and clean linen. - -I got back to barracks as dawn was spreading over the sky, and found our -commandeered horses being brought in by civilians and soldiers in fatigue -overalls. An elderly non-commissioned officer shrugged his shoulders and -said in a low voice, “Commandeered horses being brought in already!—that -does not look very healthy.” - -At the time of the Agadir affair things did not get as far as that, and -the incident forced itself on my mind as proof that war was inevitable. - -Packing and preparation were over and the men, waiting for orders, were -wandering about the square, and in the canteen, which they filled—still -half dark as it was—one heard shouts of joy and high-pitched voices -telling the oldest and most threadbare stories. - -But the canteen-keeper—friend of us all—with red eyes and shaking voice, -was talking of Bazeille, her own village, burned by the Germans in 1870, -where her old father and mother still lived. She is horrified at the -thought of another invasion of the soil of France. - -“The Bosches here? No, indeed, Flora, you are talking wildly; never you -doubt, we will send them to the right-about and back to Berlin at the -point of our toes—give us another glass of white wine—the best—that’s -better worth doing.” - -“Well, well!” - -At the table where I sat with my own particular friends, all were in high -spirits, all talking the greatest nonsense, becoming intoxicated with -their own words as they romanced of heroic charges, of wonderful forced -marches and highly fantastic battles; I alone remained somewhat serious -and heavy of heart, and abused myself for being less free of care than -they in the face of this triumph of manliness and youthful high spirits; -yet in spite of myself, I watched them, these comrades of mine, day in, -day out, to whom I should become more closely allied still by war, and -tried to pierce the mists of the future, grey and threatening, and to -discern what was to be the fate of each. - -There they sat: Polignac, who was to be taken prisoner a short four weeks -later, and who still languishes in a Westphalian fortress; Laperrade, who -was to fall dead with a lance head through his chest as he defended his -officer; Magrin, fated to die, when spring came, with a bullet through -his heart; Clère, whom death was to claim three days after having -heroically won his commission, and all the rest of them, too many to name -here, but of all of whom I cherish in my heart a recollection not only -tender but full of pride that they were my friends. - -Yet the day passed in a fever of expectation and excitement. The smallest -piece of news, or the greatest absurdity told by the latest man from the -guard-room of the 5th, or the stables of the 2nd, or by “the adjutant’s -orderly,” flew like the wind round the barracks, increased in volume, -became distorted, took shape no one knew how and in the end was believed -by all—until some still more ridiculous tale took its place. - -There were waggish fellows, too, who wandered from group to group with a -serious look on their faces, saying, “Well, it’s come now; I have just -heard the Colonel give the order to stand to horses,” and until evening, -when we were again crowded inside the canteen, it was the same hunger for -news, the same excitement, the same desperate longing to know what was -happening. - -Only at seven o’clock did we get the official news, and although it came -as no surprise, the whole barrack was stunned by it. Squadron orders -issued at seven o’clock gave us three hours to prepare to march, as -prescribed by the rules governing the movements of covering troops, to -which we belonged. In three hours we should be on the way to an unknown -destination; to ourselves fell the honour of being the advance guard; -to us the task of guarding and watching the frontiers whilst the rest -of the army was mobilising; and with keen pride in the fact, we held up -our heads and thrust out our chests, whilst our faces took on a look of -confidence in our power to conquer. Even the humblest trooper seemed -transfigured, and in that moment I realised, perhaps for the first time, -the high soul of France. - -But the news soon spread beyond the barracks. Rheims, although some -twenty minutes’ walk away, somehow learned it, and almost immediately all -the town flocked to the barrack gates. I say all the town because all -classes together hurried there pell-mell—not only those with a brother or -son or a friend amongst the troops about to set off, but those who were -drawn by ties of friendship with the regiment, and those who came from -mere curiosity. The crowd, which got larger and larger, beat upon the -iron gates like waves breaking vast and black on a rocky shore. Old women -came to give a last kiss to their sons; old men, too, pensioners who -had fought in ’70, whose hands trembled as they pressed those of their -boys, distracted little shop girls who held their lovers passionately -in their arms—silk frocks and broadcloth mingled together in one vast -crowd swayed by deep emotion, brave and placid, though its heart was near -breaking—every sob was stifled, every mouth drawn with sorrow yet tried -to laugh, and it was cheerily that the last partings took place, the last -touching and heartfelt “God speed” was said. - -How great a country to possess such children! Soon the gates could no -longer bar the passage of the crowd which swept like a torrent through -the outer square, overwhelmed the sentries, and threatened to engulf -everything. - -As the hour of departure grew nearer, the farewells became more animated. -Then the bugles sounded through the barracks the order for “majors to -join the Colonel,” next captains and others of commissioned rank; there -was a scurrying of officers to and fro before the orderly room, and -Colonel Robillot himself could be seen standing on the doorstep watching -the scene with a look of pride and indulgence in his eyes. - -At nine o’clock, as I was standing some distance apart in a corner -of the square with friends who had come to bid me a last farewell, a -non-commissioned officer, touching me on the shoulder, warned me that my -troop was about to fall in, and I had to break off my adieux. - -From that moment I was to think no more of myself. All was over with -affairs that bound heart or fancy. The supreme moment had come when words -no longer count, and when the eyes try to fill themselves with one last -gaze upon those whom one is leaving—goodbye to family, to love, to self, -to the joy of the living—all one’s soul goes out in this last gaze. - -This look would say, “Farewell, I will be brave, never doubt it, don’t -cry, don’t suffer regrets.” This look embraces all that life has meant up -to now, whether of joy or sorrow. It is final—a farewell, a promise—it -signifies the end—all one’s very soul is in one’s eyes. - -And, in effect, no sooner was my back turned and I stood at my horse’s -side than all other thoughts left me. I forgot that I had perhaps said -a last farewell, in face of the essential importance of assuring myself -that nothing of my equipment should be forgotten, that my horse is -soundly shod, of tightening up the girths and seeing that my blanket was -properly folded, and, automatically, I went on repeating to myself, “Let -me see ... I have my lance, my sword, my carbine[1] ... have I thought -of everything?” and seemed to look disaster in the face on finding that -I had no water-bottle—what was I to do? The very bottle that Flora, the -canteen-keeper, had filled with boiling soup in her motherly way—“Oh, my -water-bottle”—a real calamity it seemed—empires might crumble; I should -have no soup to-morrow morning—all my outlook on war is shrouded in gloom. - -Still it was no time to behave like a child. One by one each trooper -led his horse into the huge barrack square, where spots of light from -electric torches carried by the officers indicated where each troop was -to take up its position. - -On the chalky ground of the square, showing grey in the darkness, what -looked like parallel black lines were growing longer. They were lines of -troops, growing into squadrons and increasing until they became the whole -regiment. Behind them were the baggage waggons, the travelling forges, -machine-guns, commandeered carts, the cyclists’ detachment and all the -rest. - -The riding school lay between us and the outer square, which was filled -with light and alive with the impatient crowd crushing forward to see us -ride out of the narrow way kept open for us, and the time dragged as we -waited for every man to be in his place and for the signal to move out. - -The horses, impatient at standing still, would paw the ground, and now -and again a long-drawn neigh would break the silence. At last a figure -appeared in silhouette—it was the Colonel. - -“Mount!” The two majors repeated the command, and in each half-regiment -its two captains, first, then the subalterns and non-commissioned -officers repeated it. - -A wave seemed to flow from troop to troop like an eddy in a pool, and, -sitting rigid in our saddles, our lances held upright, we waited the -final order, which was to decide our future and direct us towards the -unknown. - -“March!” Quitting the dim light of the inner, we came suddenly into the -brightly lit outer square, where thousands of hands were held up to bid -us a frenzied farewell. - -A cry from the crowd followed as we dragoons, sitting like statues, our -helmets drawn well down over our faces lest we should betray any sign of -emotion, passed out of the barracks which many were never to see again, -amid the cheers of a multitude, and the noise of thousands of feet which -grew less and less distinct as we rode on. - -“I say, old pals, don’t forget your sweethearts,” cried a little street -girl standing on the edge of the foot-path, and that was the last word I -heard as Rheims became more and more indistinct in the darkness, whilst -we pushed on towards the east. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -ACROSS THE BORDER INTO BELGIUM—LIFE ON ACTIVE SERVICE FROM DAY TO -DAY—AFTER THE GERMANS HAD PASSED THROUGH—THE RETREAT - -6th August to 5th September, 1914 - - -It was on the 6th of August that we crossed the frontier into the Walloon -district of Belgium at Muno, to bring succour to the Belgians whose -territory had just been violated by the German Army. - -In turning over my diary, I select this incident from among many -others and stop to describe it, for it seems but right to recall the -enthusiastic and touching welcome with which the whole people greeted -us—a people now, alas, crushed under the German heel. We were welcomed -with open arms—they gave without counting the cost, they threw open their -doors to us and could not do enough for the French who had come to join -forces with them and bring them succour. - -There is not a trooper in my regiment, not a soldier in our whole army, -who does not recall that day with feelings of profound emotion. - -From the time we left Sedan, our ears still ringing with the cheers that -had sent us on our way from Rheims, we received the heartiest of welcomes -and good wishes at every village we passed through, but once across the -frontier we were acclaimed—prematurely, as it turned out—as veritable -conquerors. - -Cavalry on the march, squadron after squadron, has a marked effect on -people, and takes the semblance of an invincible rampart against which -any enemy must go down. - -After seventeen hours in the saddle, with helmet, lance, carbine, sword -and full kit, now by a night-time more than disagreeable by reason of an -icy cold fog, now under a tropical sun which scorched us, all the while -in a cloud of dust, tormented by swarms of midges and horse-flies which -hung about us, and tortured by the sight of cherry trees heavy with -fruit, which hung over the road, but the branches of which were out of -our reach, we approached the frontier. - -On the road we passed all the vehicles in the district which had been -requisitioned by the military, interminable convoys of them, amongst -which, irrespective of class, were humble peasant carts, old-fashioned -shaky barouches, motor-cars, with the crests of their owners blazoned on -the doors, all filled with oats and forage. - -Aëroplanes followed us and passed ahead of us flying all-out towards the -east. Every now and again we had to draw to the side of the road to allow -streams of motor omnibuses drawn from the streets of Paris, filled with -chasseurs[2] and infantry, to pass by; and our teeth crunched the fine -dust that we incessantly breathed. - -At length we passed by a fir wood, and a post, painted yellow and black, -showed us that we were in Belgium; then we came in sight of a village, -almost a hamlet, from which, as we drew near, there rose a noise, the -sound of singing, growing louder as we drew near—the _Marseillaise_, -sung in welcome by all the folk from the country-side, gathered at their -country’s gateway to greet us. - -All joined in, women, children with shrill voices, even the old men. They -ran along after us till we reached the _place_, when the song ceased and -a thousand voices cried: “Vive la France! Vive les Français!” with such -vigour that the horses were startled and cocked their ears in alarm. - -One and all brought us gifts, each according to his or her means, fruit, -bread, jam, cakes, cigars and cigarettes, pipes and tobacco. I should -fill a page with a list of what was thrust upon us. To our parched lips -women held flagons of wine or beer, which refreshed us more perhaps when -it ran down our cheeks, caked with dust, even than when it found its -way down our throats, as the jolting of our horses caused us to spill -the precious liquid. It taxed us to stuff away all the dainties in our -already overfull pockets, and we stuck cigars into our tunics between the -buttons, and flowers in the buttonholes. - -A number of French nuns with white head-dresses, like huge white birds, -presented us with sacred medallions. I shall always retain graven on -my memory the agony depicted in the beautiful, sad eyes of an elderly -nun with white hair, who held out to me the last of her collection, a -scapular of the Virgin in a brown wrap, and as she did so, said to me, -“God guard you, my child.” - -And in each village we passed through, that day and the days which -followed, we met with the same welcome and the same generosity. It was -the same at Basteigne, at Bertrix, at Rochefort, Beauraing, and Ave; -indeed everywhere, in the towns as in the villages, the crowd hailed us -and fed us. Belgians have handed me boxes of as many as fifty cigarettes. - -After exhausting days of twelve or fourteen hours in the saddle I noticed -that the troopers, worn out with fatigue, suffering from the heat, from -hunger and thirst and intolerable stiffness, sat up in their saddles -instinctively as we approached a village, prompted by an unconscious -sense of pride in holding up their heads, and I can say, for my part, -that such a welcome as we received always banished any feelings of -fatigue. - -One of our bitterest regrets was having to pass again through Belgium in -the reverse direction and to read the dumb surprise on the faces of the -people who had thought us unconquerable, but whose great hearts were full -only of commiseration for us, worn out as we were, and who, forgetful of -their own anxieties, did all in their power to help us. - -A peasant woman, I remember, gave us the whole of her provisions, -everything that remained in her humble dwelling. The enemy were then -advancing on our heels in a threatening wave, and, on my expressing -astonishment that she should strip her shelves bare in this fashion, she -shook her fist towards the horizon in a fury of rage and exclaimed: “Ah, -sir, I prefer that you should eat my provisions rather than leave them a -crumb of bread.” - -Up till the 19th August we had advanced in Belgium; the retreat of the -division commenced that same day from Gembloux. We kept on seeking, -without success, to get in touch with the German cavalry. Nothing but -petty combats took place with insignificant details, a troop at most, but -more often with patrols, reconnaissance parties and little groups who -surrendered on our approach in a contemptible fashion. - -I saw a German major, Prince R——, accompanied by two or three troopers, -surrender themselves while still some two hundred mètres from one of our -weak patrols. They threw down their arms and put up their hands. It was a -sickening sight. - -Everywhere the enemy’s cavalry gave ground, vanished in smoke, became a -myth for our regiment, in spite of our forced marches. Each day we spent -ten, fifteen, twenty hours in the saddle. One day we actually covered -a hundred and thirty kilomètres in twenty-two hours, and reached our -culminating point to the east, almost under the walls of Liége. - -Although we hardly saw any Germans during this first month, we could, -_per contra_, follow them by the traces of their crimes. - -By day, from village to village, lamentations spread from one horizon to -the other, and I regret not having noted the names of the places which -were the scenes of the atrocities of which I saw the sequels. I regret -not having taken the names of the unhappy women whose children, brothers -and husbands had been tortured and shot without motive, not to speak of -the outrages which they themselves had undergone, not to speak of the -assaults of lechery and Sadism of which they had been the victims. They -alluded to these in a fury of rage or made an involuntary confession in -an agony of humiliation and grief. - -By night a furrow of fire traced the enemy’s path. The Germans burnt -everything that was susceptible of being burnt—ricks, barns, farms, -entire villages, which blazed like torches, lighting the country-side -with a weird light. - -We entered villages of which nothing remained except smoking and calcined -stones, before which families, who had lost their all, grieved and wrung -their powerless hands at the sight of some black débris which had once -been all their joy, their hearth and home. - -I wish particularly to insist that these deeds were not the result of -_accident_, for we were daily witnesses of them for a whole month. I -still shiver when I think of the confidences which I have received. The -pen may not write down all the facts, all the abominations, all the -hateful things, all the lowest and most degrading filthiness inspired by -the imagination of crazy erotomaniacs. It was always Sadism which seemed -to guide their acts and predominate amongst their misdeeds. - -Here a mother mourned a child, shot for some childish prank; there a -young girl grieved for her fiancé, hung because he was of military age; -farther on a helpless old man had had his house pillaged and had been -brutally treated because he had nothing else to offer. At every step -we heard the story of crime, and those guilty deserve to be hung. Such -are the things of which such an enemy was capable—an enemy who refused -combat, who advanced hastily under cover of night to rob and burn a -defenceless village, and who seemed to vanish like smoke at the approach -of our troops, leaving in our hands hardly more than some drunken -stragglers unable to regain their army, or some robbers who had waited -behind to rob a house or to violate a woman, and had been taken in the -act. - -We passed through all that in our endless quest, always in the saddle, -sleeping two or three hours at night, in an exasperating search for the -German cavalry, which was constantly reported to be within gun-shot, but -which disappeared by enchantment each time we approached. To give an idea -of what we endured, I have transcribed word for word the notes from my -field pocket-book describing some of these August days. These notes were -written in most cases on horseback by the roadside during a halt. - - _7th August._—Torrential rain; twelve hours in the saddle; we - are worn out with fatigue; put up at Basteigne; arrived at - night. My troop is on guard. I mount duty at the bridge; we are - fed by the populace, nothing to eat from rations. - - _8th August._—Réveillé 3 o’clock, mounted a last turn of duty - at the bridge till 5 o’clock. Departure; rested at midday in an - open field for dinner. While we are eating, enemy is reported - near; we follow immediately towards Liége. Don’t come up with - them. March at night till one in the morning; have done one - hundred and thirty kilomètres and twenty hours on horseback, - sleep in an open field from two to four. - - _9th August._—Torrid heat, men and horses done up; billeted at - Ave after twelve hours in the saddle. First squadron ambushed. - Lieutenant Chauvenet killed. The Germans flee, burning the - villages, killing women and children. - - _11th August._—Leave Ave at 5 o’clock. The heat appears to - increase, not a breath of air. For two hours we trot in clouds - of blinding dust. A regiment of Uhlans is reported. The Colonel - masses us behind a hill and we think we are going to deliver - battle; but the enemy steals away once more. Thirst is a - torture, my water-bottle lasts no time. Arrive at Beauraing at - six o’clock. Thirteen hours in the saddle. - - _12th August._—We onsaddled at 5 o’clock. False alarm; wait at - Beauraing. - - _14th August._—Alarm, the regiment moves off; I am left behind - to accompany a convoy of reservists. The village is barricaded, - the enemy is quite near. Only a handful of men are with the - convoy. Wait at the side of the road with Fuéminville and - Lubeké. Five dismounted men arrive, without helmets, done up, - limping, prostrated, grim as those who have seen a sight which - will for ever prevent them from smiling; the fact is that the - remains of the 3rd squadron of the 16th have been caught in - an ambush by the German infantry concealed in a wood. They - have been shot down at point-blank range without being able to - put up a fight. Never have I seen human waifs more lamentable - and more tragic. They had seen all their comrades fall at - their side and owed their lives only to the fact that they had - themselves fallen under their dead horses and to a flight of 40 - kilomètres through the woods. Montcalm is amongst the killed. - The convoy marched out at half-past nine at night, at the walk, - an exasperating pace of 4 kilomètres an hour. We took all night - to do 23 kilomètres. I ask myself when we are likely to rejoin - the 22nd, even whether the 22nd still exists. - - _15th August._—We bivouac near the village of Authée, with the - convoys of the 61st and 5th Chasseurs. It is dark and cold, - and this night has tired me more than my longest marches. The - waiting about unnerves us, and my blood boils when I think that - the 22nd must be on the eve of having a fight. The Germans lay - siege to Dinant eight kilomètres off. One hears the guns as - if they were alongside. Our turn is near, I think. No one is - affected thereby, and we prepare our soup to the whistling of - shells. The cannonade seems to redouble, they are giving and - taking hard knocks, and some there will be who won’t answer - their names to-night. - - _Ten o’clock._—The different convoys move off. 16th, 22nd, - 9th, 28th, 32nd Dragoons, etc. All at once we are stupefied - by seeing a battalion of the 33rd of the line, or rather what - remains of the battalion, some thirty terrifying beings, - livid, stumbling along, with horrible wounds. One has his lips - carried away, an officer has a crushed hand, another has his - arm fractured by a shell splinter. Their uniforms are torn, - white with dust and drip with blood. Amongst the last comers - the wounds are more villainous; in the waggons one sees bare - legs that hang limp, bloodless faces. They come from Dinant, - where the French have fought like lions. Our artillery arrived - too late, but they had the fine courage to charge the German - guns with the bayonet. The guns spit shell without cease and - the crackle of musketry does not stop. We go across country - to billet at Florennes. These last days of tropical heat - give place to damp cold. It is raining. We meet long convoys - of inhabitants who, panic-stricken, quit their houses to go - and camp anywhere at all. It is lamentable. Two kilomètres - from Florennes we “incline.” The cold is biting, in spite of - the cloak I wear. We arrive in black darkness at a village - where we bivouac in spite of the torrential rain. I rejoin - the regiment with infinite trouble; clothes, kit, horses are - dripping wet. They must stay so all night. I do a stable guard - at three in the morning without a lantern. The horses are tied - up by groups to a horseshoe. They kick and rear, upsetting the - kit and the lances in the mud; I dabble about and lose myself - in the night. The village is called Biesmérée. - - _Sunday, 16th August._—The weather has cleared up. I - leave again with the regiment. We are going to put up at - Maisons-Saint-Gérard. Just before arriving there a storm bursts - and wets us through; the water runs down into our breeches. - I am as wet as if I had been dipped in a river; and one must - sleep like that ... and yet one does not die! - - _17th August._—Off at 5 o’clock. We bivouac at Saint-Martin in - the meadow between two small streams. I have hurt my left foot - badly, and at times I feel an overpowering fatigue, but one - must carry on all the same. The bivouac is admirable. Big fires - warm up the soup for the troops. The little stream shimmers, - all red, and encircles the bivouac. The day ends; splendid. - Some Cuirassiers bivouac a little higher up on the village - green. We hear them singing the _Marseillaise_. We sleep in a - barn in heaps one on the top of the other. - - _19th August._—The 4th squadron is on reconnaissance. We start - alone, at a venture. We are in the saddle all day. At night we - make a triumphal entry into Gembloux and we are baited with - drinks and food. The Germans are at the gates of the town and - the crowd is wildly excited. The sun goes down without a cloud, - round as a wafer. I forget the day’s fatigues and we venture - across the plain and the woods. It is an agonising moment; we - hide ourselves behind a long rick of flax; the enemy is some - hundreds of mètres off and all night we have sentries out. I - slept two hours yesterday, to-day I am passing the whole night - on foot. The cold is cruel. Now and then my legs give way and I - nearly fall on my knees. We have had nothing to eat but bread, - the chill damp gets into our bones. Some Taubes pass, sowing - agony. - - _20th August._—I am one of the point party under Lieutenant - Chatelin. We fire on some horsemen at 600 mètres. The squadron - is still on reconnaissance. One could sit down and cry from - fatigue. We advance towards Charleroi, whose approaches are - several kilomètres long. A population of miners. Everywhere - are foundries, mines, factories, and for two hours unceasing - acclamation. We arrive at a suburb of Charleroi, done up, - falling out of our saddles. Interminable wait on the _place_; - night falls. The camp kit comes up at last, but the march is - not yet over, we are camping five kilomètres farther on. It - is enough to kill one. We get to Landelies. Rest at last, we - bivouac. I share a bed, with Delettrez, for the first time for - three weeks. In a bed at one side a fat old woman is sleeping. - No matter, it is an unforgettable night. - - _21st August._—Landelies; rest; we satisfy our hunger; we - expect to pass a quiet day and night. At four o’clock we are - off to an alarm; we are in the saddle all night and arrive in - a little village, whose name I forget, half dead with hunger - and cold. The peasants give us bread. We have been all day on - horseback. - - _22nd August._—Are we going to have a little rest? No, we - were out of bed all night and we are at it again. We do - not understand the movements we are carrying out. _Are we - retreating?_ The fatigue is becoming insupportable. We get - to Bousignies at three in the morning. On the road I lost my - horse during a halt and I found myself alone in the night and - on foot. I had all the trouble in the world to catch up the - squadron on foot. We slept two hours in the rain in a field of - beetroot. Off again at 9 o’clock. Loud firing twenty kilomètres - off. All the peasants are clearing out. They say that Charleroi - is on fire. - -And so it goes on each day till the end of the month. The 26th we marched -in the direction of Cambrai; we put up at Epehy, which the enemy burnt -the following day. The peasants replied by themselves setting fire to the -crops to prevent their falling into the enemies’ hands. - -At Roisel, a whole train of goods blazed in the midday heat. We went on -to Péronne. The 28th we were at Villers-Carbonel, where I was present -at an unforgettable artillery combat. I saw shells throw some French -skirmishers in the air by groups of three and four at a time. We left -Villers-Carbonel in flames, and, from that moment, we beat a rapid -retreat towards Paris, passing by Sourdon, Maisoncelle, Beauvais, -Villers-sur-Thère, Breançon, Meulan, Les Alluets-le-Roi, and, after a -last and painful stage, we put up at Loges-en-Josas, four kilomètres from -Versailles, where the fortune of war brought me to one of our own estates. - -Thus it came about that my mother, who believed me to be at the other -end of Belgium, caught sight of me one fine morning coming up the central -drive to the château on foot, leading my horse, my lance on my shoulder, -followed by a long file of troopers. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -HOW WE CROSSED THE GERMAN LINES—THE CHARGE OF GILOCOURT—THE ESCAPE IN THE -FOREST OF COMPIÈGNE - -6th to 10th September, 1914 - - -Having left Versailles we arrived at Saint-Mard on the 6th of September -to find ourselves in the thick of the battle of the Marne. The struggle -extended all around us, from one horizon to the other, and if it was -incomprehensible to our officers it was still more so to us private -soldiers. In the evening, from Loges-en-Josas, where we had been -billeted, we heard the guns. Everyone was sure that Paris would be -invested within the next two days, and then we were suddenly sent off to -be stranded some forty kilomètres to the north-east of Paris. We were -ignorant of the movements going on, and we were amazed and quite out of -our reckoning, hardly daring to believe that the enemy, who the evening -before was thought to be at the gates of Paris, was now in retreat. - -For my own part I preserve only a confused and burning recollection of -the days of the 6th and 7th of September, days memorable amongst all -others, since they saw the beginning of the victorious offensive of the -armies of Maunoury, of Foch, of French and of Langle de Cary. The heat -was suffocating. The exhausted men, covered with a layer of black dust -adherent from sweat, looked like devils. The tired horses, no longer -off-saddled, had large open sores on their backs. The air was burning; -thirst was intolerable, and there was no possibility of procuring a drop -of water. All around us the guns thundered. The horizon was, as it were, -encircled with a moving line of bursting shells, and we knew nothing, -absolutely nothing. - -In the torrid midday heat we kept advancing, without knowing where or -why. We passed a disturbed night rolled in our cloaks in an open field, -without rations and already suffering from hunger. The next day was -a repetition of the last and was passed in the same hateful state of -physical exhaustion and of moral inquietude. From time to time, behind -some hill, beyond some wood, quite near, a sudden and violent musketry -fire broke out; the gun fire redoubled in intensity and we heard the -whistle of the shrapnel passing high over us, and the noise of the -bursting shell. There, we said to ourselves, is the fighting; there, -no, there, and then there on the left, on the right; it was everywhere. -Repeatedly our column had to make sudden detours to avoid artillery fire. -Still we knew nothing, and we continued our march as in a dream, under -the scorching sun, gnawed by hunger, parched with thirst and so exhausted -by fatigue that I could see my comrades stiffen themselves in the saddle -to prevent themselves from falling. The sun went down with a splendour -that no one thought of admiring. Little by little, insensibly, our -figures bent forward till they touched the wallets on our saddles, and -we gave way to a sort of torpor. Then a long tremor ran along the ranks. -Above the village of Troène we fell into the thick of the fight. This -happened so quickly that I preserve only a visual image of it. We had -slowly climbed a hill, whose shadow concealed the setting sun from us. -As we came out on the crest of the hill, we caught a sudden glimpse of a -regiment of chasseurs-à-cheval, silhouetted in black against the immense -red screen of the sky, charging like a whirlwind, with drawn sabres. - -A “75” gun on our flank fired without interruption. I can see now a -wounded chasseur who rose from the grass where he lay almost under the -muzzle of the gun, and who fell back, as if struck by lightning, from -the displacement of air caused by the shell. A second later nothing was -to be seen except a confused _mêlée_ behind a small wood. The noise was -terrible, and was made up of a thousand different sounds. An officer of -chasseurs, with a bullet through his chest, bareheaded, all splashed with -blood, came down the hill leaning on his sword, and leaving behind him a -long trail which reddened the grass. Then the sun seemed to perish as the -immense uproar died down; all the noises died away, and we continued our -road in the rapidly falling darkness, having had a sudden and fugitive -vision of one scene amongst the thousands which compose the drama of a -great battle. - -All night we had marched without repose, without food. In our exhaustion -we had become the spectres of our former selves, and our hearts were -breaking from discouragement. We did not know that right alongside of us -the most victorious offensive in the history of the world was commencing. -We did not suspect that, under pressure from General Maunoury, the -German 4th Reserve Corps was giving way, and that this must assure the -rout and the final defeat of Von Kluck’s army. - -From the 8th we began to play an active part in the great battle. The 5th -Cavalry Division was ordered to surprise a German convoy and to seize -it. The officers told us of this mission. At last we were going to do -something; our time of waiting was at an end, and there was to be no more -wandering about the burnt-up country, devoured by thirst and discouraged -at feeling ourselves lost and forgotten in the great struggle we had -set our hand to. The convoy would be four kilomètres long, and we could -already imagine the attack, the taking of the booty. It was going to be a -romantic and amusing episode, and the dragoons sat up in their saddles, -forgetting their fatigue and their hunger, and full of joy at the thought -of the promised combat. - -In my inner self I could not share the general enthusiasm; I felt that -we had been exactly marked down by the enemy’s aircraft which flew over -us each moment, insolently bidding defiance to our rifle and machine-gun -fire. - -The expedition, however, started off well. A young dragoon, sent forward -as scout, penetrated into a farm and there found fifteen Prussian Staff -Officers engaged in stuffing themselves with food. He calmly pointed his -revolver at them and advised them to surrender. “My regiment will be here -directly; any resistance is useless.” In reality he had to keep them -under the muzzle of his revolver for a long quarter of an hour, for the -regiment was still far off. A major having shown signs of moving, the -dragoon blew out his brains at point-blank range, and he succeeded in -keeping them all terrorised until our arrival. This capture stimulated -still further the general good humour. I can still see six of the -fourteen prisoners file past the flank of the column, each between two -dragoons, a forage cord tied to the reins of their horses, and I can see -again the cunning and furious look of a “hauptmann” still bloated with -the feast which we had prevented him from completing. I remember the gay, -frank laugh of the whole regiment, its light-heartedness at having laid -hands on these fat eaters of _choucroute_, who were too astonished even -to be insolent. - -A few moments afterwards three German motor-cars were sighted three -hundred mètres off, going at a prudent pace. At once the ranks were -broken and we galloped furiously at them, each straining hard to be the -first to get there; but, by quickly reversing their engines, the three -chauffeurs succeeded in turning and made off at top speed, riddled by -machine-gun fire, but out of range for us. The last of them, however, was -destined to fall into our hands next morning, having been damaged by a -shot in its petrol tank. We had to set it on fire so as not to abandon -it to the enemy, who were pressing us on all sides. Half my regiment was -now detached from the division and charged with the task of capturing, -unaided, the tail of a convoy which was reputed to have broken down on -the road. - -At nightfall we entered the forest of Villers-Cotterets, under the -command of Major Jouillié, and I was assailed by an acute presentiment -of misfortune. I parted from the other half of the regiment and from the -other regiments of the division with the clear and irresistible intuition -that I would not see them again for a long time, and shortly afterwards -we melted like shadows under the trees of the great dark forest. - -Then commenced, for me, one of the most painful episodes of the whole -war. The silence of the forest was lugubrious. A Taube persisted in -flying over us, quite near to the ground, like a great blackbird. Its -shadow grazed us, one might have said, and nothing was more harassing -and more demoralising than this enemy that followed us and kept -persistently on our track. At a cross-roads, as we came out into a large -clearing, it let fall three long coloured smoke balls to signal our -presence to its artillery, which was doubtless quite near but of whose -position we were ignorant. Then it disappeared with a rapid flight, and -the night fell black as ink around us. - -The voices of the officers seemed grave. The continual thrusts which the -column made, its returns on its tracks, gave me to understand that we -were groping our way, not knowing which to take. We descended in double -file a terribly steep narrow path, preceded by the machine-guns, which -had only just room enough to pass. The soft soil sunk in like a marsh. -Then there was a sudden halt and, quite near me, I saw the Major’s face, -full of anxiety. Addressing Captain de Tarragon in a choking voice he -said, “The machine-guns are done for.” The rest of the phrase was lost, -but I heard the words “bogged, engulfed, impossible to get them out....” - -We were ordered to incline, and we climbed up again to the forest. All -the men were alarmed at the loss of the machine-guns, abandoned in the -marsh, and the face of Desoil, the non-commissioned officer with the -machine-guns, was heart-breaking. His mouth worked but no words came. - -With this discouragement all of us felt a renewal of hunger which was -painfully acute. Thirst too burnt our throats, and fatigue weighed down -our exhausted limbs. Ah, how I envied the horses which nibbled the leaves -and the grass. For two days our water-bottles had been empty, we had -already finished our reserve rations and this contributed to the gloom on -our faces. - -Towards midnight, the village of Bonneuil-en-Valois was vaguely outlined -in the night at the edge of the forest. The hungry and tired horses -stumbled at each step; almost all the men were dozing on their wallets, -and we committed the irreparable fault of dismounting and of sleeping -heavily on the open ground, instead of utilising the cover of night to -join one of the neighbouring divisions by a forced march. A small post -composed of a corporal and four men was the only guard for our bivouac. -Each of us had passed his horse’s reins under his arm, and all of us -slept, officers and men alike, like tired brutes. We did not suspect that -our sentinels were posted hardly three hundred mètres from the German -sentries, who were concealed from us by a fold in the ground which held a -regiment of Prussian infantry, who had chanced to get there, within rifle -range, just at the same time as we. - -At dawn a neighing horse, some clash of arms, probably gave away our -position, and the alarm was given in the enemy’s camp, which was -separated from us only by a field of standing lucerne. The troopers slept -on, and the German scouts crept up, absolutely invisible. - -A sudden musketry fire woke us up, and the German infantry was on us. -I cannot think of these moments without giving credit to the admirable -presence of mind which saved the situation by the avoidance of all panic. -The horses were not girthed up, many of the kits had slipped round, reins -were unbuckled; no matter, we had to mount. I have a crazy recollection -of my loose girth, of my saddle slipping round, of the blanket which had -worked forward on to my horse’s neck; no matter, “Forward! Forward!” a -second’s delay might be our ruin. A hail of bullets fell amongst us. -Alongside of me, Alaire, a quite young non-commissioned officer, was hit -in the belly. He was the first in the regiment whom I had seen fall. -God! what a horrible toss he took, dragged by his horse, maddened by -fear, crying out, “Rolland, Rolland, don’t abandon me.” Then, in a last -contortion, his foot came out of the stirrup and he died convulsed by a -final spasm. Near me, the Captain’s orderly gave a loud shout; horses, -mortally wounded, galloped wildly for some mètres and then suddenly fell -as if pole-axed. - -I saw a man who, as if seized with madness, sent his wounded horse -headlong to the bottom of a ravine and then threw himself after. - -“Forward! Forward!” I followed the others, who made off towards the -village. My horse trod on a German whose throat, gashed by a lance -thrust, poured out such a stream of blood that the earth under me was red -and streaming with it. “Forward! Forward!” - -We were not going to view them then, these enemies who killed us without -our seeing them, so hidden were they amongst the grass that they blended -with the soil? Yes we were though, and suddenly surprise stopped short -the rush of the squadrons. Before us, some mètres off, and so near that -we could almost touch it with our lances, an aëroplane got up, like a -partridge surprised in a stubble. A cry of rage burst from every throat. -We tried to charge it with our lances in the air, but it mocked our -efforts, and our rearing horses were on the spot ten seconds too late. -The enemy seemed also to have flown. All that remained were two or three -grey corpses that strewed the soil. We trotted into the village with our -heads down, humiliated at having been fooled like children. - -After having passed the first few isolated farms along our road, an -enemy’s section came for us, exposing themselves entirely this time, -while a line of recumbent skirmishers fired a volley into us from our -right, almost at point-blank range. There was nothing for it but to -retire, unless we wanted to remain there as dead men, and at the gallop, -the more so because a machine-gun was riddling the walls of a farm with -little black points. We passed before it like a whirlwind; and, happily, -its murderous fire was too high to hit us. I can still recall the sight -of an isolated German, caught between the fire of his regiment and the -charge of our horses. I turned my head and laughed with joy at seeing a -comrade pierce him with his lance in passing. - -The Germans were all round us, and our only line of retreat was by the -forest, into which we all plunged in a common rush without waiting for -orders. The forest, at least, represented safety for the moment. It was -a sanctuary calculated to protect us from an entire army, until we died -of hunger. For a long time we marched in silence, cutting across the -wood, avoiding the beaten path, for our intention was to attain the very -heart of the forest, or some impenetrable spot where we could not be -discovered, where we could regain our breath and where our officers could -deliberate and take a decision. The whole half-regiment took shelter at -last in an immense ravine, where we were sheltered from aircraft. We were -covered by a thick vault of leaves in a sort of prehistoric gorge, which -seemed far from all civilisation and lost in an ocean of verdure, and -there we dismounted. The Major sent patrols to explore the issues from -the forest, and we waited some mortal hours without daring to raise our -voices. - -Our situation was almost desperate. For three days we had touched not a -morsel of bread, not a biscuit, our horses not a handful of corn. The -reserve rations were exhausted; and the patrols, which came in one after -the other, brought sad news. The Germans were masters of all the issues -from the forest, and we were taken in a vice, prisoners in this gulf -of trees and reduced to dying of hunger and thirst. A little way off, -the officers—Major Jouillié, Captain de Salverte, Captain de Tarragon, -Monsieurs Chatelin, Cambacérès, Roy and de Thézy—deliberated with glum -faces. Each stood near his horse so as to be able to jump on in case of -surprise. In spite of everything the men’s spirits remained admirable. -All had a jest on their lips, and the more serious amongst them wrote a -line to their wives or mothers. Leaning against the trunk of a tree, I -scribbled on two letter-cards, found in my wallets, two short notes of -adieu. The day passed with depressing slowness. - -Towards four o’clock two officers of Uhlans appeared on a little road -which, so to speak, hung above us. At once all eyes were fixed on these -two thin silhouettes. They advanced, talking quietly, with their reins -loose on their horses’ necks. How great was the temptation to shoulder -one’s carbine, take steady aim, feel one’s man at the end of the muzzle -and kill him dead with a ball through the heart! Everyone understood, -however, that it was necessary to keep quiet and let off the prey so good -a mark was it, for doing so would have given the alarm and signalised our -presence. Now they were right on us, so near that we could have touched -them, and yet they did not know that there were two hundred carbines -which could have knocked them over at point-blank range. Even now I -can distinctly see the face of the first, as if it were photographed -on my brain. He was quite young, with an eye-glass well screwed into -the eye, his face was red and insolent, just as the Prussian officer -is always represented. He had a whip under his arm, and he even had a -cigar. Suddenly his face and that of his companion contracted, as if -confronted by some apparition. This French regiment must have seemed to -them a phantom of the forest, some impossible and illusory vision seen in -the shadow of the leaves. Their horses stopped short and, for the space -of a second, their riders looked like two figures in stone. Then in a -flash they understood and fled at full speed. For an instant we heard -the stones fly under their horses’ shoes, but the sound grew fainter and -fainter, and a deep silence reigned again. - -The alarm had been given, the danger had still further increased, and, -now that our place of concealment had been discovered, we had to start -off again across the thicket and rock on our poor done-up horses. On -reflecting over it, my mind refuses to believe that such a cross-country -ride was possible. To throw the enemy off the scent it was necessary to -pass where no one would have imagined that a horse could go, and that -involved a ride into the abyss in the deepening night, plunges into black -gulfs, intersected by trunks of trees, to the foot of which some horsemen -and their horses rolled like broken toys. - -I felt my old horse, Teint, curl up and tremble between my legs. His hair -stood on end and his nostrils opened and shut. On, on, ever on ... to the -very heart of the old forest, whose most secret solitudes we troubled, -frightening the herds of deer, which fled terrified before our cavalcade. -For a moment it seemed as if we were at some monstrous hunt on horseback -with men for quarry, and in spite of myself, a mortal fatigue seized on -me. I shut my eyes and waited for the “Gone away.” Better it were to be -finished quickly, since the game was lost. - -The troops had got mixed and I found myself again for a moment amongst -the 3rd squadron by the side of Lieutenant Cambacérès, and we exchanged a -few brief words. Almost timidly, so absurd did the idea appear that one -of us could escape, I asked him to write a line home if it were my luck -to be done for and if he came out safe. I promised him the same service, -if the rôles were reversed. To such an extent does gaiety enter into -the composition of our French nature, we even joked for a few moments -and we shared a last tablet of chocolate, which he had preserved in his -wallet, a service for which I shall always be grateful to him, for hunger -was causing me insupportable pain. We were now going at a slow pace over -a carpet of dead leaves, amongst trees which were singularly thinned -out. Our object being to gain the heart of the forest, we had ended up -by reaching its border, and we remained glued to the spot, holding our -breath at the sudden vision seen through the branches. - -The famous convoys that the division was out to take were there, in -front of us, on a stretch of some eight kilomètres of road. Waggons of -munitions, provision carts, water-carts, lorries of all sorts, were -moving gaily along at an easy walk, and the rumbling noise was continuous. - -In the calm of the evening each spoken word, each order given by the -guides came to us clear and distinct. Then came the last vehicles, the -last country carts, some stragglers tailing out into a confusion of -cyclists and horsemen; and so the interminable convoy went on its way. -The vehicles at its head had the appearance of toys on the horizon, of -toys designed with the pen on the gold of the sky; and the personnel -looked like insects finely traced in the clear atmosphere. The whole -thing went quietly on its way like a slow caravan. One would have said -that here was a people coming to settle in conquered country and arriving -at the end of its journey in the peace of a lovely evening. - -The same day, at the same moment, General Foch, pushing the thin end of -his wedge between the armies of Bülow and those of Hausen, enlarged that -fissure which was to prove fatal to the German army which had almost -arrived at the Marne. The pursuit was about to begin. These same convoys, -whose peaceful aspect wounded our hearts from the insolence of their air -of possession on French soil (we were ignorant of course that the dawn -of a great victory was about to break)—these same convoys, lashed by -terror and by the breath of panic, were going to follow beaten armies in -a headlong and wild retreat, leaving on the road their waggons and stores. - - * * * * * - -From this moment a vague hope sprang up in our hearts and, as is often -the case, we gathered courage when the worst of catastrophes seemed to be -heaping on our heads. - -Night fell little by little. It was impossible to remain where we were. -We were well within the German lines, of this there was no doubt, since -we had the enemy’s troops behind us, while their convoys were on in front -of us; but, under cover of night we might attempt a desperate stroke, -and anything was better than dying of hunger. Towards ten at night our -column came bravely out of the forest—a silent column whose members -looked like phantoms. Cutting across country, we avoided Haramont, -Eméville, Bonneuil-en-Valois, Morienval. As night fell a sombre gloom -seized on us. All those silent villages, which we dared not approach, had -a threatening appearance; lights appeared suddenly, more or less distant; -a succession of luminous points was moving slowly, like a moving train -going slowly. I was ill at ease, and this was causing me physical pain; -my saddle girth was too loose and had allowed my horse’s blanket to slip -till it threatened to fall off. No matter, for nothing in the world would -I dismount. It seemed as if hands came out of the shadows and stretched -forth to seize me. A breath of superstitious terror blew over us, and, in -the deep surrounding silence, a single persistent and regular noise made -us start with the fear of the unknown. It was the screech of the owl, -an unnatural cry which seemed like a signal replied to in the distance; -and it made us shudder. My eyes eagerly searched the shadow to discover -a hidden enemy. Twice I could have sworn that I saw a group of German -uniforms, two mounted Uhlans, another on foot; but I mistrusted my eyes, -hallucinations being of common occurrence at night, and I tried to pluck -up courage. - -While crossing a road a sudden noise and a cry of “Help!” rang out, a cry -choked with agony and terror. It came from one of our men, whose horse -had struck into mine and had rolled into the ditch. I turned and saw -in a flash a brief struggle which the night at once blotted out. This -time I had made no mistake. There really were two Germans struggling -with our comrade; but I was carried on by the forward movement, and -profound silence reigned again. If we were surrounded by enemies, why -this conspiracy of silence? The horrid screech of the owl never ceased, -imparting panic to our disordered imaginations, making us think that even -a catastrophe was preferable to this maddening incertitude, to this agony -of doubt. During this time I lived the worst hours of my life. - -We advanced, however, marching from west to east, and soon we entered -the great black mass of the forest of Compiègne, from whence arose four -or five bird-calls as we approached. No matter; for the second time the -forest represented safety for us, and under the impenetrable shade of its -tall trees we followed its edge in the direction of Champlieu, sometimes -followed, sometimes preceded by the hooting which announced, as we learnt -later, our approach and our passage. - -At the moment when our agony was at an end, when hope revived, when, -even, certain men giving way to fatigue had bent down on to their -wallets drunk with sleep,—at that moment we fell definitely into the -mouse-trap into which the Germans had methodically decoyed us, and a -desperate attack was made on us from all sides. The drama took place -so rapidly that I can remember only detached shreds of it. The clouds -parted, letting fall a flood of moonlight; somewhere a cry resounded in -the night, and the black forest seemed to spit fire. Thousands of brief -flashes lit up each thicket, a hail of bullets thinned the column, and -mingled with this were cries and a terrible neighing from the horses, -some of which reared, while others lay kicking on the ground, dragging -their riders and their kits in a spasm of terrible agony. Instinctively -each trooper made a “left turn” and galloped furiously to get out of -range of this murderous fire which decimated our ranks. In a few seconds -we had put two hundred mètres between the forest and us, and the two -squadrons rallied under cover of a slight mist. - -As we rode a squadron sergeant-major, Dangel, gave a groan, as his horse -carried him off after the others. Then I saw him collapse, pitch forward -on his nose on to his horse’s fore shoulder and fall to the ground, to be -dragged. I leapt from my horse and managed to disengage his foot. Holding -him in my arms, I begged him to show a little pluck. “We must clear out -of this or we will be taken prisoners. For God’s sake get on your horse.” -His only response was a long sigh, then his heavy body collapsed in my -arms, and he dragged me to the ground. For a second I was perplexed. The -others were far off, and I alone remained behind with a dying man in my -arms, who clasped me in desperate embrace. At last his arms let go, and a -spasm stretched him dead at my feet. I laid him piously on the grass with -his face to the sky, and when I had finished this last duty to a comrade, -I raised my head and saw a whole line of skirmishers fifty mètres off. -For a moment a feeling possessed me that I could not get away; but, -damme, they were not going to take me alive. An extraordinary calm came -over me. - -I remounted slowly, made sure that I had picked up all four reins and -lowered my lance. Now, by the grace of God ... now for it. A volley -greeted my departure, but it was written that I was to escape. Several -bullets grazed me, not one hit me. Soon I was out of range and concealed -by a curtain of fog. I rejoined the two squadrons, many of whose troopers -were without horses. Two hundred mètres farther on a fresh fusillade came -from the invisible trenches and decimated our already thinned ranks. -Captain de Tarragon, whose horse had been wounded, pitched forward -and remained pinned under his horse. I passed by him at the gallop -hardly seeing him, and I heard a shout that seemed to illumine the very -darkness: “Charge, my lads.” This shout, repeated by all, swelled, -increased and became a savage clamour, which must have paralysed the -enemy, for the fusillade ceased and cries of “Wer da” were heard at -different points. - -Afterwards I shut my eyes and tried to remember, but for some moments -everything was mixed up. I recall a furious gallop at the dark holes -where the Germans had gone to earth. A high trench embankment faced us -and my horse got to the other side after a monstrous scramble. Before -me and on my right and left I saw horses taking complete somersaults; I -could not say whether it lasted a minute or an hour. The pains and the -privations of the last three days culminated in a moment of madness. We -had to get through, cost what it might; we had to bowl over everything, -break through everything, but get through all the same, and our hot and -furious gallop grew faster under the heedless moon, which bathed the -country with its pale and gentle light. Three times we charged, three -times we charged down on the obstacle without knowing its nature, until -the remains of the two squadrons found themselves, breathless, in a -little depression at the edge of a wood, before an impassable wall of -barbed wire. - -Impatient voices shouted for wire-cutters, and during the delay before -these were forthcoming, a few panic-mongers blurted out false news, -which soon circulated and which all believed: “The enemy is advancing in -skirmishing order.” “We are going to be shot down at point-blank range,” -etc.... Had the news been true, I would not have given much for our -skins. Huddled together like a flock of sheep before the gap which some -of our men were exerting themselves to open up for our passage, a handful -of resolute infantry could have killed every one of us. - -At last the gap was made and I descended a steep slope between the thin -stems of the birches, having been sent forward as scout by my Major, whom -I was never to see again. Below, a figure in silhouette and bareheaded -was resting on his sword in the middle of a clearing bathed in moonlight. -He watched me coming, and I was astonished to recognise in him the -officer of my troop. For a brief moment each had taken the other for an -enemy, and at twenty mètres off we were each ready to fall on the other. -Our mutual recognition was none the less cordial. M. Chatelin refused -my horse, which I offered to him, deciding to try to regain our lines -on foot under cover of night (which he did after having knocked over -two German sentries). He warned me expressly against some skirmishers -concealed in a thicket behind me, and after a hearty handshake and a -“good luck,” which sounded supremely ironical between two such isolated -individuals, lost in the heart of German “territory,” I watched his thin -silhouette melt into the darkness. - -I made my way back to give an account of my mission and to tell the -Major that this route was impracticable for the two squadrons. Above, -the plain extended to infinity, white in the moonlight, with no vestige -of a human being! All that was to be seen were two horses which galloped -wildly to an accompaniment of clashing stirrups, and the uneasy neighs of -lost animals—that whinny of the horse which has something so human in it -gave me a shudder. How was it that two squadrons had had the time, during -my brief absence, to melt and disappear? - -What road have they found? Why have they abandoned me? The terror of -desolation took the place of my former calm. To die with the others in -the midst of a charge would have been fine; but to feel oneself lost -and alone in all this mystery, in this endless night, in the midst of -thousands of invisible enemies, was a bit too much. It was a childish -nightmare and, seized with the same panic as the lost horses, I too -spurred mine till his flanks bled, and I set off straight before me -galloping like a madman. Luck, or perhaps my horse who scented his -stable companions, brought me all at once to a small contingent of -dragoons,—Captain de Salverte and eleven men, with whom I joined up. I -questioned the Captain, who could tell me nothing. He had found himself -detached and lost like me, and he had put himself at our head to try to -get us out of this inextricable position. We walked on gloomily through -a country cut up by hedges and streams. Shortly, we found ourselves -within a few mètres of an enemy’s bivouac, the fires of which made the -shadows dance on our drawn faces. A stupid sentry was warming himself, -and had his back turned to us. What was the good of struggling? Why cheat -oneself with chimerical illusions? The day would dawn and we would be -ingloriously surprised and sent to some prisoner’s camp in the centre of -Germany, unless, choosing to die rather than yield, we kept for ourselves -the last shot in our magazines. - -However, we reached the forest. In the maze of dark paths we lost the -Captain and Sergeant Pathé. With Farrier Sergeant-Major Delfour, and -Sergeant-Major Desoil of the machine-gun section, nine of us were left, -and we were determined to try a last effort, spurred by an awakening of -that instinct of self-preservation which stiffens the desire to live in -the very face of death. - -Deep in the forest we passed the night concealed in a thicket, taking -pity on our horses, which would have died had we demanded a further -effort of them. Soon we were overpowered by sleep, sleep so profound that -the entire German army might have surprised us, without our raising a -little finger to get away. - -At daybreak we continued our way, with stiff and benumbed limbs and -soaking clothing. It was a beautiful autumn day. Wisps of pink mist -wrapped to the tree tops. A large stag watched our coming with uneasy -surprise, standing in the middle of a paved road on his slim legs. He -disappeared with a bound into a clump of bushes, whose swaying branches -let fall a shower of silver drops. A divine peace possessed all space. In -a clearing some thirty loose horses had got together. The larger number -were saddled and carried the complete equipment of regiments of dragoons -and of chasseurs. The lances lay on the ground, together with complete -sets of kit and mess tins. Surely the enemy had not passed this way or he -would have laid hands on all this material so hurriedly abandoned; and -yet no human being was about who could tell us anything, not even a lost -soldier. There was no one but ourselves and the immense tranquil forest, -gilded by early autumn, splashed with the dark green of the oaks and with -every shade of colour from ardent purple to the white leaf of the aspen. - -That glorious dawn shone on the greatest victory the world had ever seen. -The battle was over for the armies of Maunoury, of French, of Franchet, -of d’Estrey, of Foch, and of Langle de Cary. The pursuit was beginning, -and the whole extent of country, where we were now wandering, pursued and -tracked like wild beasts, was going to be cleared within a few hours of -the last German who had sullied its soil. - -More than thrice during the morning we came unexpectedly on German -detachments, isolated parties, lost patrols or stragglers, and each time -we cut across the wood to escape them at the risk of breaking our necks. -Then we got to a long straight path at the lower end of which a fine -limousine motor-car had been abandoned, and at the end of the path we -reached a village which appeared to be empty. We consulted together for -a moment, being in doubt what to do; but all of us were loth to return -to the forest. This was the fifth day of our fast; so much the worse for -us; it was time to put an end to it, so we made our way to an abandoned -farm. We sheltered there for two hours, scanning the surrounding country -for signs of life. Everything seemed dead. We could see no peasant, no -civilian, not even an animal, and this waiting was one torment the -more, but it was to be the last. Not till ten o’clock, over there, very -far off, did I catch sight of the thin black caterpillar of a column -of soldiers coming our way during my turn of sentry-go. My heart beat -violently, but I refrained from giving the news to my comrades from -the fear of raising false hopes. My eyes burnt like flame and my teeth -chattered. If these were Germans the game was up. If they were French, -oh! then! - -I looked, I looked with my eyes pressing out of my head. At times, as I -strained my eyes, everything grew misty and I could see nothing; then, -a second later, I again found this growing caterpillar and I began to -distinguish details. There were squadrons of cavalry, but I could not yet -make out the colour; and my body, from being icy cold, turned to burning -hot. At times I forced myself not to look. I looked again, counted -twenty, and then devoured space with my eyes. - -A patrol had been detached, and approached rapidly at the trot; this -time I recognised French Hussars. Then all strength of will, and all my -effort to remain calm disappeared. I turned my reeling head towards my -comrades and I fell on the grass crying, crying like a madman, in words -without sequence. The fatigue of these five days without food or drink, -almost without sleep, and the living in a perpetual nightmare, brought on -a nervous crisis, and my whole body was racked with spasms. My comrades, -not having as yet understood, looked at me with astonishment. With a -gesture I pointed out the approaching column, the pale blue of which -contrasted brightly with the gold of the leaves. All of them, as soon as -they had seen it, were overcome as I had been, each in his own way. Some -burst into brusque convulsive sobs, others danced, waving their arms like -madmen or rather like poor wretches who have passed days of suffering and -agony on a raft in mid-ocean, and who suddenly see a ship approaching to -their rescue. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -VERBERIE THE CENTRE OF THE RALLY—THE EPIC OF A YOUNG GIRL—MASS IN THE -OPEN AIR—FROM DAY TO DAY - -10th September to 20th October, 1914 - - -The battle finished on the tenth, and then the pursuit of the conquered -army commenced and kept the whole world in suspense, with eyes fixed on -this headlong flight towards the north, which lasted till the end of the -month, and which was to be the prelude of the great battles of the Yser. - -The region round Verberie was definitely cleared of Germans and was -become once more French. The little town for some days presented an -extraordinary spectacle. - -We entered the town after having received the formal assurance of the 5th -Chasseurs, who went farther on, that all the country was in our hands. -Some divisional cyclists were seated at the roadside. We asked them for -news of the 22nd, and their reply wrung our hearts. They knew nothing -definite, but they had met a country cart full of our wounded comrades, -who had told them that the regiment had been cut up. - -No one could tell us where the divisional area was to be found. The -division itself appeared to have been dismembered, lost and in part -destroyed. We thought that we were the only survivors of a disaster, -and, once the horses were in shelter in an empty abandoned farm stuffing -themselves with hay, we wandered sadly through the streets destroyed -by bombardment and by fire in search of such civilians as might have -remained behind during the invasion. - -A little outside the town we at last found a farm where two of the -inhabitants had stayed on. The contrast between them was touching. One -was a paralysed old man unable to leave his fields, the other was a young -girl of fifteen, a frail little peasant, and rather ugly. Her strange -green eyes contrasted with an admirable head of auburn hair, and she -had heroically insisted on looking after her infirm grandfather, though -all the rest of the family had emigrated towards the west. She had -remained faithful to her duty in spite of the bombardment, the battle -at their very door and the ill-treatment of the Bavarian soldiers who -were billeted in the farm. Distressed, yet joyous, she prepared a hasty -meal and busied herself in quest of food, for it was anything but easy -to satiate eleven men dying of hunger when the Germans, who lay hands on -everything, had only just left. - -She wrung the neck of an emaciated fowl which had escaped massacre, -and, by adding thereto some potatoes from the garden, she served us a -breakfast, washed down with white wine, which made us stammer with joy, -like children. One needs to have fasted for five days to have felt the -cutting pains of hunger and of thirst in all their horror, to appreciate -the happiness that one can experience in eating the wing of a scraggy -fowl and in drinking a glass of execrable wine tasting like vinegar. She -bustled about, and her pitying and motherly gestures touched our hearts. -While we ate she told us the most astonishing story that ever was, a -story acted, illustrated by gestures, which made the scenes live with -remarkable vividness. - -She told us how, faithful to her oath, she was alone when the Bavarians -came knocking at her door, how she lived three days with them, a butt -for their innumerable coarsenesses, sometimes brutally treated when the -soldiers were sober, sometimes pursued by their gross assiduities when -they were drunk; how one night she had to fly half naked through the -rain, slipping out through the vent-hole of the cellar, to escape being -violated by a group of madmen, not daring to go to bed again, sleeping -fully dressed behind a small copse; how at last French chasseurs had put -the Bavarians to flight and had in their turn installed themselves in the -farm, and how among them she felt herself protected and respected. - -She attached herself to her new companions, whom she looked after like a -mother for three days. Then they went away, promising to return, and she -was left alone. - -But the next day at dawn, uneasy at the row that came from the town, she -decided to go in search of news. She put on a shawl and slipped through -the brushwood and thickets as far as the first houses. She was afraid of -being seen, and made herself as small as possible, keeping close to the -walls, crossing gardens and ruined houses. The terrible noise increased, -and she went towards it. She wanted to see what was going on, and a fine -virile courage sustained her. The shells fell near her; no matter, she -had only a few more steps to go to turn the corner of a street. She -arrived on the _place_ as the battle was finishing. - -Her fifteen chasseurs were there, fifteen corpses at the foot of the -barricade. One of them, who still lived, raised himself on seeing her, -and held out his arms towards her. Then, forgetting all danger, in a -magnificent outburst of feminine pity, she braved the rain of fire and -dashed to the centre of the _place_. She knelt by the young fellow, -enveloped him in her shawl to warm him and rocked him in her arms till he -closed his young eyes for ever, thankful for this feminine presence which -had made his last sufferings less bitter. - -While she remained kneeling on the pavement wet with blood, a last big -calibre shell knocked over, almost at her feet, a big corner house, which -in its fall buried the German and French corpses in one horrible heap. -She fell in a faint on the stones, knocked over by the windage of the -shell, which had so nearly done for her. - -During the latter part of her discourse she straightened her thin figure -to the full, her strange eyes sparkled, and she appeared to be possessed -by some strong and mysterious spirit which made us tremble. She became -big in her rustic simplicity—big, as the incarnation of grief and of -pity, and the peasant in her gave place to a living image of the war—an -image singularly moving and singularly beautiful. - - * * * * * - -From the next day Verberie became in some degree the rallying point -for all soldiers who had lost touch with their units. Elements of all -sorts of regiments, of all arms, of all races even, arrived on foot, -on horseback, on bicycles, in country carts. There were dragoons, -cuirassiers, chasseurs, artillerymen, Algerian Light Infantry and -English. Bernous, khaki uniform, blue capes, rubbed shoulders with -dolmans, black tunics and red trousers. - -In this extraordinary crowd there were men from Morocco mounted on Arab -horses and wearing turbans; there were “Joyeux” who wore the tarboosh, -and ruddy English faces surmounted by flat caps. All the uniforms were -covered with dirt and slashed and torn. Many of the men had bare feet, -and some carried arms and some were without. It was the hazard of the -colossal battle of the Marne, where several millions of men had been at -grips, which had thrown them on this point. All were animated by the same -desire for information, and particularly of the whereabouts of their -respective regiments. From every direction flowed in convoys, waggons, -artillery ammunition waggons, stragglers from every division and from -every army corps. The mix-up and the confusion were indescribable. One -heard shouting, swearing, neighing of horses, the horns of motor-cars, -and the rumble of heavy waggons, which shook the houses. - -Faces drawn with fatigue were black with dust and mud and framed in -stubbly beards. Everyone was gesticulating, everyone was shouting and -a bright autumn sun, following upon the storm, threw into prominence -amongst the medley of clothing the luminous splashes of gaudy colours and -imparted an Oriental effect to the crowd. - - * * * * * - -Having eaten, washed and rested, I walked the streets, drinking the -morning air and taking deep breaths of the _joie de vivre_, of the -strength and vitality mingled with the air. I looked on every side to -see whether I could not find some acquaintance in the crowd, some stray -trooper from my regiment. - -So it was that the hazard of my walk brought me to a scene which moved -me to tears and which rests graven so deeply on my memory that I can see -its smallest detail with my eyes shut. The Gothic porch of the church, -with its fine sculptures of the best period, was open, making in the -brightness of the morning a pit of shade, at the foot of which some -candles shone like stars. On the threshold of the porch, gaily lighted -by the morning sun, a priest, whose fine virile face I can still recall, -held in his hand the enamel pyx, and his surplice of lace of a dazzling -whiteness contrasted with the muddy boots and spurs. One could guess -that after having traversed some field of battle, consoling the wounded -and the dying, he had dismounted to officiate in the open air under the -morning sun. - -Before him, on a humble country cart and lying on a bed of straw, were -stretched the rigid bodies, fixed in death, of two chasseurs who had -fallen nobly while defending the bridge over the river. All around, -kneeling in the mud of the porch, a semicircle of bareheaded soldiers, -overcome by gratitude and humility, were assembled to accomplish a last -duty and pay their last respects to the two comrades who were lying -before them and who were sleeping their last sleep in their blood-stained -uniforms, and assisted at the supreme office. The priest finished the _De -profundis_, and in a clear voice pronounced the sacred words “_Revertitur -in terram suam unde erat et spiritus redit ad Deum qui dedit illum._” -The officiant gave the holy-water sprinkler to the priest, who sprinkled -the bodies and murmured “_Requiescat in pace._” “Amen,” responded the -kneeling crowd, and a great wave of religious feeling passed over the -kneeling men, the greater part of whom gave way to overmastering emotion. - -I can still see a big devil of an artilleryman, with his head between -his hands, shaken by convulsive sobs. Having given the absolution, the -priest raised the host sparkling in the sunlight for the last time and -pronounced the sacramental words. I moved off, deeply affected by the -grandeur of the scene. - - * * * * * - -By the 12th a good number of 22nd Dragoons and some officers of the -regiment had rejoined at Verberie. We formed from this débris an almost -complete squadron under the command of Captain de Salverte, who had -succeeded in getting through the lines by skirting the forest. - -I again found my officer, M. Chatelin, whom I had last seen in the little -clearing near Gilocourt, surrounded by lurking enemies, and whom I had -hardly dared hope to see again alive; also M. de Thézy, my comrade Clère -and others. - -We were all sorry to hear that Lieutenant Roy had fallen on the field -of battle with several others, and that Major Jouillié had been taken -prisoner. As for Captain de Tarragon, it was stated that he might have -escaped on foot with his orderly and that he might be somewhere in -the neighbourhood with a contingent of escaped men, but any precise -information was wanting. - -The night before I had slept in the drawing-room of the château belonging -to M. de Maindreville, the mayor. Its appearance merits some brief -description, so that those who are still in doubt as to the savagery of -the Germans may learn to what degree of bestiality and ignominy they are -capable of attaining. - -This fine drawing-room was a veritable dung heap. The curtains were torn, -the small billiard-table lay upside down in the middle of the room, a -litter of rotting food covered the floor, the furniture was in matchwood, -the chairs were broken, the easy-chairs had had their stuffing torn out -of them and the glass of the cabinets was smashed. One could see that all -small objects had been carried off and all others methodically broken. -On the first floor the sight was heart-breaking. Fine linen, trimmed -with lace, was soiled with excrement; excrement was everywhere, in the -bath, on the sheets, on the floor. They had vomited on the beds and -urinated against the walls; broken bottles had shed seas of red wine on -the costly carpets. An unnamable liquid was running down the staircase, -obscene designs were traced in charcoal on the wall-papers and filthy -inscriptions ornamented the walls. - -I have told enough to give an idea of the degrading traces left by a -contemptible enemy. I have exaggerated nothing; if anything, I have -understated the truth. - -And this is the people that wants to be the arbiter of culture and of -civilisation! May it stand for ever shamed and reduced to its true level, -which is below that of the brute beast. - - * * * * * - -On the morning of the 12th, under the command of Captain de Salverte -we crossed the Oise by a bridge of boats, the stone bridge having -been destroyed by dynamite some days before. We went north to billet -at Estrée-Saint-Denis, which was to be the definite rallying point of -the 22nd Dragoons. We were followed by several country carts, full -of dismounted troopers, saddles, lances, cloaks and odds and ends of -equipment. - -Acting on very vague information, I set out on the 13th to look for -Captain de Tarragon. I was mounted on a prehistoric motor bicycle, -requisitioned from the village barber. I scoured the country seeking -information from everyone I met. I received the most contradictory -reports, made a thousand useless detours and was exasperated when -overtaken by night without having found any trace of him. - -I followed the road leading to Baron and to Nanteuil-le-Haudoin, along -which but a few days before the corps of Landwehr, asked for by von -Kluck, had marched with the object of enveloping our army, and along -which it had just been precipitately hustled back. The sky was overcast -and the day threatening. At each step dead horses with swelled bellies -threatened heaven with their stiff legs. A score of soldiers were lying -in convulsed attitudes, their eyes wide open, with grimacing mouths -twisted into a terrifying smile, and with hands clasping their rifles. -Involuntarily I trembled at finding myself alone at nightfall in this -deserted country, where no living being was to be seen, where not a sound -was to be heard except the cawing of thousands of crows and the purr of -my motor, which panted on the hills like an asthmatic old man, causing -me the liveliest anxiety. - -Fifteen hundred mètres from Baron, after a last gasp, my machine stopped -for ever, and, as I was ignorant of its mechanics, I was compelled -to leave it where it was and continue my journey on foot through the -darkness. - -The proprietor of the château of Baron put me up for the night. As at -Verberie, everything had been burnt, soiled and destroyed. Nothing -remained of the elegant furniture beyond a heap of shapeless objects. -Next morning with the aid of a captain on the staff who requisitioned a -trap for me, I got back to Verberie and found Captain de Tarragon there. -He had slept at the farm of La Bonne Aventure, quite near to where I lay. - -When he saw me, after the mortal anxieties through which he had lived, -believing his squadron lost and cut up, he was overcome by such a feeling -of gratitude and joy that I saw tears rise to his eyes while he shook me -vigorously by the hand. He had already sent forward my name for mention -in the order for the day with reference to the affair at Gilocourt and -the death of poor Dangel. I was recommended for the military medal, -and my heart swelled with pride and joy, while I was carried back to -Estrée-Saint-Denis, stretched out in a country cart with a score of -dismounted comrades. - -A few days afterwards I was promoted corporal and proudly sported the red -flannel chevrons bought at a country grocer’s shop. - - * * * * * - -Once the half-regiment was reconstituted after a fashion, though many -were missing (a detachment of fifty men without horses having returned to -the depot), we were attached to the 3rd Cavalry Division, which happened -to be in our neighbourhood, ours having left the area for some unknown -destination. Until the 1st of October our lot was bound up with that of -the 4th Cuirassiers, who marched with us. - -On the 23rd of September, as supports for the artillery, we were present -at violent infantry actions between Nesle and Billancourt. The 4th Corps -attacked, and the furious struggle extended over the whole country. My -troop was detached as flank guard and, in the thick morning fog, we -knocked up against a handful of German cavalry, whom, in the distance, we -had taken for our own men. - -We charged them at a gallop, and we noticed that they were tiring and -that we were gaining on them. One of them drew his sabre and cut his -horse’s flanks with it, whilst a non-commissioned officer turned and -fired his revolver without hitting us; but, thanks to the fog, they got -away. We did not tempt providence by following them too far for fear of -bringing up in their lines. - -At night we were sent to reconnoitre some fires which were reddening the -horizon and which, from a distance, seemed vast conflagrations. We came -upon a bivouac of Algerian troops, who were squatting on their heels, -warming themselves, singing strange African melodies and giving to this -corner of French soil an appearance of Algeria. - -On hearing the sound of our horses they sprang to arms with guttural -cries, but when they had recognised that we were French they insisted on -embracing our officer and danced round us like children. - -We billeted at Parvillers in a half-destroyed farm, and there at daybreak -a sight that suggested an hallucination met our eyes. Some ten German -soldiers were there in the courtyard dead, mowed down by the “75,” but -in such natural attitudes that but for their waxen colour one could have -believed them alive. One was standing holding on to a bush, his hand -grasping the branches. His face bespoke his terror, his mute mouth -seemed as if in the act of yelling and his eyes were dilated with fear. -A fragment of shell had pierced his chest. Another was on his knees, -propped against a wall, under cover of which he had sought shelter from -the murderous fire. I approached to see where his wound was and it took -me a moment to discover it, so intact was the corpse. I saw at last -that he had had the whole of the inside of his cranium carried away and -hollowed out, as if by some surgical instrument. His tongue and his eyes -were kept in place by a filament of flesh, and his spiked helmet had -rolled off by his side. An officer was seated on some hay, with his legs -apart and his head thrown back, looking at the farm. - -All these eyes fixed us with a terrifying immobility, with a look of -such acute terror that our men turned away, as if afraid of sharing it; -and not one of them dared to touch the magnificent new equipment of the -Germans, which would have tempted them in any other circumstances. There -were aluminium water-bottles and mess tins, helmet plates of shining -copper and sculptured regimental badges dear to the hearts of soldiers, -and which they have the habit of collecting as trophies. - -The dawn of the 25th broke without a cloud over the village of Folies. A -heat haze hid the early morning sun. The enemy were quite near, and the -sentries on the barricades gave the alarm. The cuirassiers and dragoons, -leaving their horses under cover, had been on watch in the surrounding -country since the morning to protect the village and the batteries of -“75’s,” which were firing from a little way back. - -A non-commissioned officer and I had remained mounted. M. de Thézy -sent us to investigate some horsemen whose shadows had loomed through -the mist and whom we had seen dismount in an apple orchard near the -village of Chocques. We set off at a quiet trot, convinced that we had -to deal with some French hussars whom I had seen go that way an hour -before. We crossed a field of beetroot and made straight towards them. -They seemed anchored to the spot, and when we were within one hundred -mètres, and they showed no signs of moving, our confidence increased. -The fog seemed to grow thicker and our horses, now at the walk, scented -no danger. We were within fifty mètres of them when a voice spoke out -and the word “carbine” reached us distinctly, carried by a light breeze. -The non-commissioned officer turned to me, his suspicions completely -stilled, and said, “We can go on, they are French, I heard the word -carbine.” At the same instant I saw the group come to the shoulder and -a dozen jets of fire tore the mist with short red flashes. A hail of -bullets fell all around us, and we had only just time enough to put -between them and ourselves as much fog as would conceal us, for before -turning tail we had seen the confused grey mass of a column coming out of -the village. We had only to warn the artillery and then there would be -some fun. - -The lieutenant of artillery was two kilomètres back perched on a ladder. -Having listened to what we had to say, he turned towards his gun and -cried through a megaphone, “2600, corrector 18.” We were already far off, -returning at the gallop to try to see the effect, and it was a fine sight. - -Leaving the horses in a farm, we slipped from tree to tree. There was -the column, still advancing. A first shell, ten mètres in front of -it, stopped it short; immediately a second fell on the left, wounding -some men, and a horse reared and upset its rider. A third shell struck -mercilessly into the centre of the column and caused an explosion -which sent flying, right and left, dark shapes which we guessed to -be fragments of bodies. It rained shell, which struck the road with -mathematical precision, sowing death and panic. In the twinkling of an -eye the road was swept clean. The survivors bolted in every direction -like madmen, and the agonising groans of a dying horse echoed through the -whole country-side. - - * * * * * - -On the 1st of October we rejoined our division and the first -half-regiment at Tilloy-les-Mofflaines. Up to the 20th we passed through -a period of great privation and fatigue owing to the early frosts. We -were unable to sleep for as many as five days on end, and when at night -we had a few hours in which to rest, we passed them lying on the pavement -of the street, propped up against some heap of coal or of stones, holding -our horses’ reins, each huddled up against his neighbour to try and keep -warm. - -Here are extracts from my diary, starting from 8th October: - - _8th October._—All night we guarded the bridge at Estaires, - after having constructed a formidable barricade. Damp and - chilly night, which I got through lying on the pavement before - the bridge; drank a half-litre of spirits in little sips to - sustain me. This is the most trying night we have passed, but - the spirits of all are wonderful. - - _9th October: Twenty minutes to four, two kilomètres from - Estaires, scouting amongst beetroot fields._—Has the supreme - moment come? A little while ago I firmly believed that it - had; now I am out of my reckoning, so incomprehensible and - widespread is the struggle which surrounds us. - - We have evacuated Estaires and the bridge over the Lys, which - we were guarding, to rejoin our horses on foot. After some - minutes on the road the first shells burst. My troop received - orders to fight dismounted, and here we are, lying down as - skirmishers amongst the beetroot, in the midst of a heavy - artillery and musketry fire. I am on the extreme right, and a - moment ago two shrapnel shells came over and burst six or eight - mètres above my head, peppering the ground with bullets. Never, - I imagine, have I come so near to being hit. - - For the moment it is impossible to understand what is going on; - the whole of the cavalry which was on in front of us—chasseurs, - dragoons and all the cyclists—have fallen back, passing along - the road on our flank. We, however, have had no order to - retire. The peasants with their wives and children are running - about the country like mad people. It is a sorry sight. A - moment ago I saw an old man and a little girl fall in their - hurry to escape from their farm, which a shell had just knocked - to pieces. They are like herds of animals maddened by a storm. - - At dusk the Germans are 500 mètres off. We have orders to take - up our post in the cemetery of Estaires. I have hurt my foot - and each step in the ploughed land is a torture. I have noted a - way which will lead me to the bridge on the other side of the - town. - - I brought up my patrol at the double. When I got back I saw the - troop retiring. - - We passed through the town, which had a sinister look by night, - reddened by the flames from many fires. The whole population is - in flight, leaving houses open to the streets, and crowding up - the roads. All the window-panes are broken by the bombardment; - somewhere, in the middle of the town, a building is burning - and the flames mount to the sky. There are barricades in every - street. We have reached the horses, which are two kilomètres - from the town, and we grope for them in the dark. Mine is - slightly wounded in the foreleg. Long retreat during the night - (the second during which we have not slept—a storm wets us to - the skin). - - Arrived at Chocques at five in the morning. We get to bed at - 6.30 and we are off again at 8 o’clock. I ask myself for how - many days men and horses can hold out. - - _10th October._—In the afternoon we again covered the twenty - kilomètres which separated us from Estaires. Hardly had we - settled down to guard the same bridge as yesterday when we were - sent to La Gorgue. On the way stopped in the village, as shells - commenced to fall. The 1st troop took refuge in a grocer’s, - where we were parked like sheep. A large calibre shell burst - just opposite with a terrible row. I thought that the house - was going to fall in. Lieutenant Niel, who had stayed outside, - was knocked over into the ditch and wounded. We are falling - back with the horses to La Gorgue, and we are passing a third - night, without sleep, on the road, Magrin and I on a heap of - coal. Horses and men have had nothing to eat, the latter are - benumbed, exhausted, but gay as ever. - - _11th October._—We get to a neighbouring farm at Estrem to - feed the horses. They have scarcely touched their hay and - oats before an order comes telling us to rejoin at the very - place from which we have come. The Germans are trying to take - the village from the east, thanks to the bridge which they - captured the day before yesterday, but we have been reinforced - by cyclists, and the 4th Division is coming up. We are holding - on; the position is good. The belfry of the town hall has just - fallen. We are going back to Estrem. - - Three hours passed in a trench without great-coats. Magrin - and I are so cold that we huddle up one against the other and - share a woollen handkerchief to cover our faces. We put up at - Calonne-sur-la-Lys. And so it goes on up to the 17th, the date - on which we re-enter Belgium, passing by Bailleul, Outersteene - and Locre. It is not again a triumphal entry on a fine August - morning, it is a march past ruins and over rubbish heaps. - - At Outersteene, however, we were received with touching - manifestations of confidence and enthusiasm; an old tottering - and broken-down teacher had drawn up before the school a score - of young lads of seven to ten years old, who watched us passing - and sang the _Marseillaise_ with all their lungs, while the old - man beat the time. - - The village had been evacuated only three days ago, and it - was from the thresholds of its houses, partly fallen in and - still smoking, that this song rose, a sincere and spontaneous - outburst. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE TWO GLORIOUS DAYS OF STADEN - - -On October 19th, at midday, we rode into Hougled. The Captain got us -together and warned us that we were being sent on in front to delay -the march of the enemy till our infantry had had time to come up. The -enemy’s march had to be delayed _at all costs_. He did not conceal from -us that two, or perhaps three, divisions had been marked down in front -of us, that the task would be a stiff one and that it was a question of -“sticking it out” to the last drop of our blood. - -We then received orders to prepare for a dismounted action, and, leaving -our horses in a street, we set off across the ploughed fields, laden with -ammunition. I carried a big cartridge case, which I usually left in my -wallets on account of its weight. - -Some round clouds, of a snowy whiteness, which made them stand out -against the crude and washy blue of the background, scudded across the -sky, carried by a stiff breeze. All Nature was _en fête_, and the fresh -strong wind was intoxicating. - -Towards four o’clock the enemy showed himself in sections and in -companies, well aligned on the plain beneath us. There was no attempt at -concealment, as, doubtless, the village was thought to be unoccupied. - -Under cover of some thin brushwood we opened fire on these regular -formations, to show that we were there and not in the least impressed -by these demonstrations of company and field training. It was just like -being on manœuvres, and these awkward soldiers seemed rather ridiculous, -gravely doing the goose-step, when so soon it would be a question of -killing or being killed. - -We must have got their range, for we noted through field-glasses a slight -confusion in the enemy’s ranks, and, instantaneously, the advancing -infantry disappeared. They were still there, however, for their bullets, -slipping over the ridge where we offered a good target, pitted the turf -all round us, happily without wounding any one. The Germans have a -remarkable faculty of making themselves scarce in the twinkling of an eye -as soon as they have been seen by an enemy, like those insects which, at -the least noise, blend with the grass on which they are perched. - -Our naval guns, ranged by the side of the road, fired over the plain. An -observing officer, standing on his horse’s back, judged the effects of -the fire. We saw the shells burst in beautiful plumes of dark or light -smoke. The enemy’s fusillade ceased, much to our satisfaction. - -But the German artillery began to reply, and we were soon subjected to -such a fire that we had to retreat towards the village, being uneasy -about our horses, which happened to be in the line of fire. In going -along the main street we kept close to the walls to avoid the shell -splinters. Shells of all calibres fell without ceasing, making holes -in the thin slate roofs and breaking the windows. I saw one pierce a -wall some paces in front of me and burst inside a house, whose stories -collapsed, one on the top of the other. It was just like an earthquake, -the whole street was shaken by it. - -We made for our horses at the double and found them plunging under this -storm of fire, and we galloped off behind the village to get them into -safety. Without losing a second we distributed extra cartridges in large -numbers and returned to take our place between the farms in the grass -fields shut in by hedges and barriers. We worked at fortifying our -positions till evening. Everyone made “his trench.” (That word had then -another signification; at that time the word trench represented for us -the least scooped-out hole, the least obstacle placed between the enemy -and us.) - -We protected ourselves with sand-bags, faggots, agricultural implements, -etc. We were hardly installed before we received an order to leave this -place and to occupy a road on the right, running between two meadows. We -made a barricade at the end of it, somehow or other, with whatever came -to hand. - -The infantry, expected at four o’clock, were late, and it became -questionable whether it would be materially possible to hold out -much longer, if the Germans attacked, taking into consideration the -disproportion between our forces and those of the enemy. - -Night had hardly come when an infernal fusillade broke out, and it -lasted till daylight without the least slackening. It was exactly like -an uninterrupted salvo fire, with the addition of the sharp, regular dry -crackle of machine-guns. Thousands of projectiles struck our fragile -barricade or passed, whistling, over our heads. We fired straight in -front of us into the dark night, without knowing what we aimed at, except -that our fire was directed towards the place whence this murderous storm -of shot and shell came. - -Constantly the same question ran from man to man: “Have the infantry come -up?” for we knew that our lives depended on their arrival. Our orders -were: “You will prevent the Germans passing till you have been relieved.” - -We had only a handful of troopers, two hundred perhaps, to check the -onslaught of a formidable mass of infantry. Unless our infantry came to -our aid we would be cut up to a man; but the enemy should have to pass -over our bodies. - -Overcome with fatigue, and in spite of the thunder all round us, I fell -asleep, suddenly, heavily, dreamlessly, in a little ditch which ran by -the roadside. I don’t know when I awoke. The noise of the combat was -dominated by a clamour still louder and more penetrating: a part of the -village of Staden was on fire. A horde of Germans dashed into it, yelling -“Hourraa!” A diabolical clamour rose to heaven, and yells and cries of -bestial joy mounted with the thick smoke of the fires. - -We learnt afterwards that they had charged empty barricades, a party of -our men having evacuated the town an hour previously. A corporal of the -1st squadron, posted a little more to the left, told me he had seen them -200 yards off defiling in quick step “silhouetted like devils” against -the glare of the fire. - -Still no infantry. - -A torpor seized me and I fell back into the ditch, overcome by sleep, -and slept again till almost daylight. From that moment events moved with -great rapidity. It must have been seven o’clock when the infantry at last -arrived, fifteen hours late. We heard hurried footsteps. I turned and saw -troops falling back in hot haste, being irresistibly outflanked by the -enemy. They seemed to be pursued by assailants who were on their heels. -I heard voices exclaiming, “It is pitiable to see fellows so up against -it.” I said nothing, but, in my inner consciousness, I clearly understood -that the supreme moment was come for many of us. - -For a moment I feared that we had been forgotten in the general movement. -Soon afterwards Captain de Tarragon appeared at the cross-roads. I -can see him still; he looked immensely big in his blue cloak. Without -speaking, he signalled to us that we could retire. It was time indeed, -for the enemy outflanked us on all sides. The troop doubled towards him -and ran on. Magrin and I remained alongside him. Never so much as then -have I felt the irresistible force of Destiny. It was written that I was -to remain with him until the end. - -We three reached a farm on the crest of the ridge; 400 mètres off a -German company was advancing. The Captain seized a carbine from the hands -of a late-comer who fled past us and turned round to open fire. Faithful -to my oath, and knowing that our lives hung on a thread, I fired off the -contents of my magazine alongside of him. I aimed as best I could, though -my greatcoat interfered, and I shot into the brown. A second later the -German reply crumbled the wall of the farm, passing between the Captain -and me, two fingers’ breadth over our heads. - -I implored de Tarragon not to expose himself any longer. What was the use -of this heroic folly of standing up alone against an advancing battalion -of the enemy? Doubtless our regiment was already a long way off, but we -might, perhaps, be able to rejoin it by crawling along the deep ditch -which ran by the roadside. - -Hate of the enemy seemed, however, to rage in his heart, and he replied, -“It is too bad to have to abandon such a target!” At last, his cartridges -being exhausted, he decided to retire, without running, and seeming to -defy the entire world with his tall well set-up figure of a handsome -French soldier. Instead of taking to the ditch which ran by the roadside, -he crossed the field of fire. I followed him, without understanding, and -Magrin did likewise. - -A moment afterwards our number was increased to four by the arrival of -an officer of hussars or of chasseurs, who came running up. All my life -I shall remember this last. He was young, elegant and good-looking, and -so trim and neat with his sky-blue cap jauntily set at an angle. When two -mètres off he opened his mouth as if to speak, but before having emitted -a sound he fell dead, hit by a bullet under the ear. - -The Captain, who was at my side, stepped forward to put himself, at -last, under shelter. Hardly had he taken a step before a bullet hit him, -and I uttered a cry of rage on seeing him fall in a heap. Feigning to -be wounded or dead, to deceive the enemy and cause the cessation of his -fire, I fell also, and both of us rolled into the deep ditch. - -There was not a minute to lose. “Magrin, quick, quick, no good troubling -about the Lieutenant of chasseurs, he’s dead; but perhaps the Captain is -still alive, we must get him away.” Magrin, who had tumbled down after -me, believing me hit, raised the Captain’s head and I took his feet. A -hail of bullets passed like a squall above our heads. We stayed so a good -five minutes, exhausting ourselves in useless efforts to carry off this -inert body. On account of its weight it was impossible even to move it in -the squatting and unhandy position in which we found ourselves. - -He did not regain consciousness for an instant; once his eyes opened, -then the eyelids quivered and his head fell back heavily. He was dead, -and we could not think of getting him away. The fire was furious. Magrin -and I, who had remained behind till the last, now tried to gain the farm -behind which our regiment was massed. We made three mètres under cover of -the ditch, and then we covered a hundred mètres at the run, under such a -rain of bullets, aimed at us, that I attribute our escape to a miracle. -My greatcoat and cape were riddled. As I turned the corner of the house, -that corner even was torn off and the broken bricks fell on me. I passed -by some bicycles abandoned against a wall, and, after I had gone by, I -heard the sharp crack of broken spokes, which the bullets had cut. - -Once I had passed the corner I found shelter for an instant. I came -across Captain Besnier who was wounded, and helped to carry him. The -road was strewn with the bodies of dragoons, chasseurs and cyclists. -Behind the house were a brick-field and a clay-pit, whose slippery crest -had to be crossed. I saw some unlucky fellows get half over, within -two paces of safety, and then roll to the bottom, hit by the pitiless -machine-guns. - -The firing redoubled. Major Chapin, who had arrived at the front only -three days before, fell hit through the head, and many others fell whom I -did not know. - -The command of our party devolved on Lieutenant Mielle, and, following -an order from the dying Major Chapin, we took the direction of the -railway bridge on the right. Lieutenant Desonney was wounded and lay -out a hundred mètres off. I heard the Colonel cry in a loud voice with -an accent of despair which is untranslatable, “Won’t someone bring in -Desonney?” and one after the other five dragoons unhesitatingly left -their shelter and threw themselves into the furnace of fire, each of -them as he fell, within a few yards, and to be immediately replaced by -another. The whole regiment would have gone if the Colonel had not put a -stop to such heroic obedience. - -But what was going on? Amidst the noise of battle the clear notes of a -bugle mounted to heaven; both sides hesitated. They were the well-known -notes sounding the charge. We turned, and a sight of unspeakable grandeur -met our eyes. - -The dismounted 1st squadron, lance in hand, charged into the whirlwind of -fire, to allow of the rest of the regiment falling back. The obsessing -refrain made one’s temples throb. We were hypnotised, and the Colonel, -standing up, unconscious of the bullets which grazed him, folded his -arms and watched his admirable soldiers who, moved by almost superhuman -brotherly devotion, braved the fire and retarded for a moment the enemy’s -march so as to permit their comrades to escape. The Colonel watched, and -great tears of pride and of anxiety ran down his tanned cheeks. When, -once in one’s life, one has had the privilege of seeing such a deed, it -lives with one for ever. - -We now crawled across the railway. The machine-guns mowed the fields of -beetroot as if they had been shaved off with a razor. Seven of us took -this way and we all got through, I don’t know how, without being touched. -Then we slipped between the infantry sections which were advancing in -skirmishing order on all sides. Some minutes later we were behind a ridge -under cover and in safety. We reached a little shanty where we sheltered -for a long time, and from the loft of which we could still fire on the -enemy. - -Towards 9 o’clock the musketry fire gradually diminished. We left the -farm only when the artillery duel began. The shells came a bit too close, -and there was the risk of the house falling in on us. - -We went in search of the horses two kilomètres off, and retirement was -decided on because of the need for food and rest. When I caught up the -column at the trot I counted 47 led horses, which means that 47 men had -fallen. Desonney’s troop had an officer and 14 men missing out of 28. We -had lost a major, two captains, two lieutenants and many comrades, but we -had made it possible for two army corps to come up. - -A mere handful of men had put up a fight against three divisions. A fine -page in the history of the regiment! - -My greatcoat was handed round the squadron. A bullet had pierced the -cloth four times under the heart, another twice through the arm, three -others over the ribs. - - * * * * * - -Eight days afterwards, at Clarques, near Saint-Omer, where we were -resting, promotions were made to replace the non-commissioned officers -who had fallen gloriously that day. I was made sergeant-major. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE FUNERAL OF LORD ROBERTS—NIEUPORT-VILLE—IN THE TRENCHES—YPRES AND THE -NEIGHBOURING SECTORS—I TRANSFER TO THE LINE - - -A memorable ceremony in which with others of the regiment I took -part, was on the occasion of the ceremony at Saint-Omer in honour of -Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, who had died on the 15th November while on a -visit to the allied armies. - -At half-past six the regiment was formed up on the road and the twelve -best specimens of manhood were picked out from each troop. We were soaked -by rain on the way, but the sun came out when the ceremony began. - -We were formed up in battle array before the town hall. All round the -square, on the edge of the pavement, a single rank of Highlanders, -carefully sized, stood like statues. We waited the coffin, which appeared -at last from a side street, preceded by a troop of English cavalry who -marched slowly—their black horses were admirable creatures. Then came -a section of infantry, fine, big, taking fellows, who marched with -their heads down and their eyes fixed on the ground; next came superb -Indian troops, who wore turbans, amongst whom were great native princes; -then a contingent of Canadians, just disembarked; lastly some Highland -pipers playing a lament whose refrain was eternally alike. We had heard -this shrill lament for a long time, now it became stronger and more -penetrating the nearer the cortège approached, and gave a strange exotic -note to this old-fashioned setting of a little French town. - -When the coffin appeared the Highlanders who formed the guard of honour -executed a strange movement. They slowly described an arc of a circle -with their rifles, their outstretched right arms forming an uninterrupted -line all round the square, then each man finished the movement by -crossing his arms on the butt-plate of his rifle, the muzzle of which was -now resting on the ground. - -With their heads bowed, these mourners resembled some old bas-relief. The -coffin, enveloped in the Union Jack, was borne on a gun-carriage. It was -all very simple and very moving. - -To the wild notes of the Scottish bagpipes, now silent, the clear -trumpets of our dragoons replied, and their sound was in itself like -sparkling metal. They continued to sound until the remains of the -Field-Marshal had been placed in the town hall. - -After the ceremony, which we did not see, twenty-one guns thundered -out, fired by batteries posted behind the square. An immense rainbow, -as sharply defined as if drawn with a stroke of the brush, cut the sky -with a perfect and uninterrupted semicircle. Symbol of peace, it came to -earth directly behind the batteries, and the flash of the guns showed up -against its iridescent screen. - -An English officer came to tell the Colonel that the ceremony was over, -and we returned to Clarques under a beating rain, which had begun to fall -again. - -Our next active work was at Nieuport. Motor buses brought us to Coxyde, -where, amongst the slightly built villas of this watering-place, Belgian -and French uniforms swarmed. Sand-dunes, on which the sand encroached on -the scanty covering of grass, bordered the horizon on all sides. - -Captain Vigoureux had sent me to lay out the camp with a corporal and -one man. Clère, Hénon and I went on ahead at a sharp pace. From Coxyde -to Ostdinkerque there was no trace of bombardment. On the road we met -several lots of horses at exercise, some waggons, many soldiers and a few -civilians. At Ostdinkerque a mill, two houses and a part of the church -had been gutted yesterday. Some vehicles contained civilians, who were -prudently clearing out. - -From this place onwards (Nieuport-Ville was six kilomètres off) the road -became more and more deserted and the noise of the guns became louder. At -first we only heard the noise of our own batteries and the shell burst -a long way off. Two kilomètres from Nieuport I heard the whistle of the -first German shell, a shrapnel which burst some hundreds of mètres off. -Several people on the road were peppered with the fragments of shell; the -telegraph wires were broken and the rails of a tramway were torn up. The -country was a desert, and the eye saw nothing but sand-dunes without end, -and here our underground life began. - -At the entrance to the town a prudent man on duty showed his profile -at the door of a cellar. I asked him, “Where is Captain Mahot?” and he -answered in an irritated voice: “Don’t stand there in the middle of the -road, don’t you see that the shells are falling just where you are?” I -had not noticed it, but I did not take long to find out. The man on -duty led me five mètres underground to Lieutenant Deporte. “Sir, where -is Captain Mahot? The town commandant of the 16th Dragoons? I see no one -about.” “Everyone has gone to earth,” he replied, placidly filling his -pipe, “and I advise you to hurry up and do likewise, for it comes down -like hail just about now.” It did indeed. I heard the most disquieting -sounds, the bursting of big shells, the splash of bullets, which -flattened themselves against the houses. Some streets were enfiladed, and -thousands of shrapnel bullets flew back and forward between the German -trenches and ours. - -The Lieutenant gave me a man to take me to the Captain’s cellar, which -was at the other end of the town. He and I (I had left the others in -a cellar) skirted the walls, and at every step what a sight! All that -remained of the church resembled a sort of historic ruin—some pillars, -some arches, very fine ones, and some sculptures lying on the ground. -Everywhere the craters of the big shells had the dimensions of dried-up -ponds. In the principal _place_ there were two such, in which one could -have put two houses. - -Speaking of houses, some had been destroyed with an art and a refinement -which made them look like builder’s models. One was standing, of which -the only thing wanting was the outside wall facing the street, and one -could see the section of the gaping interior. The pictures were hanging -on the walls, and on the piano were photographs and nick-nacks. The -drawing-room, the dining-room and the bedroom were intact; but the -flooring of the attics had given way and everything had fallen through -to the floor below. Another house was almost comical in appearance, for, -against a wall on the lowest story, stood a fine bamboo rack, on which -two statuettes of sham Saxe ware smiled an eternal and idiotic smile and -seemed to jeer at the bombardment. Other houses, and these were the most -numerous, were lamentable rubbish heaps, fallen in, blackened, broken up -in every sense, blocking the streets and forming a hideous lamentable -chaos. Even when no shell fell—and there were long moments of calm—the -houses dropped to pieces of themselves. This one might lose the remainder -of its tiles, which fell into the street with a din; the next one might -drop, let us say, a stove, or a small billiard-table, from one floor to -another. - -I arrived at last at the end of my journey, having asked myself a -thousand times whether I should not be pulverised on the way there. The -worst bit was when I reached the last cross-roads. For the second time I -asked an orderly whether this was the house—pardon, the cellar—of Captain -Mahot, and for the second time I heard an irritated voice reply, “Don’t -stay there in the middle of the street”; but this time I lost the end -of the phrase, being blinded and deafened. The heavens seemed to fall -on me. I heard, “Get under cover,” and I felt my tympanum shattered. A -house twenty mètres from me, a large two-storied house, seemed to be -transformed into a volcano. A shell had entered its middle, through the -roof, and _the whole house collapsed into the street_, accompanied by a -formidable fall of rafters, bricks and furniture. “You see that,” said -the orderly in a severe tone; “get into the cellar.” I felt just like a -little boy. - -Five marines had been buried under the ruins. A little later I saw their -bodies on stretchers. What a lamentable death for a sailor or soldier! - -Captain Mahot said to me, “The billeting area of the 22nd Dragoons? Very -good, there it is,” and he showed me the butt-end of “the shepstraat.” -I looked at it in astonishment, saying to myself, “That?” Messina after -the earthquake would have offered more comfort. Nevertheless I inspected -the cellars and apportioned them amongst the troops, and, by myself this -time, I returned through the town to my point of departure, to meet and -conduct Captain Vigoureux, whom I found three hundred mètres beyond the -gates. - -This made the fourth time that I had made this disquieting journey. I -began to feel that I had had enough of it, the more so as I had walked -twelve kilomètres, and, not being accustomed to carrying a pack, my back -hurt me. Clère was quite knocked up, and had looked at once so sad and so -comic that I did not know whether to laugh at him or to pity him. - -The regiment settled in more or less (rather less) in the sector reserved -for it. The cellars were crowded. My orderly, who was a treasure of -devotion and very inventive, arranged my kit, found me a candle and -spread a mattress. I was kept on the run, everyone called me at once: “A -man wanted for the guard-room, a liaison officer to see the Captain, a -man wanted for water fatigue, the quartermaster-sergeant wants to know -how things are here, the 3rd troop have no billets and so on.” ... I -tried to reply to everyone, and my head was like a whirlpool. It was -impossible to keep the men in, though there were strict orders that they -were not to leave the cellars. They broke out in every direction, and, -in spite of the shells, they amused themselves like children, entering -the houses at the peril of their lives. One of them brought me a stuffed -stork; another a cornet and a draught screen; my orderly came last with a -woman’s mantlet, trimmed with lace! - -Towards six o’clock the rain of shells ceased. - -After dinner not a sound was heard. The cold was cruel. I wrapped -myself in my greatcoat and turned up the collar above my ears. I stuck -my head well into my fatigue-cap and, to amuse myself, I started off -on “reconnaissance,” armed with an electric lamp. I visited twenty -gutted houses, and this diversion was becoming monotonous when, from a -particularly damaged court, I heard a somewhat uncertain hand playing -the piano. The air was one of those old waltzes which dragoons dote on -and which suggest Viennese softness combined with the popular taste of -the Boulevards. There was no light in the yawning house. One might have -called it the house of Usher, at least I thought of that spontaneously, -for there was something weird about those black holes from whence came -this sad and popular jingle, though the eye was conscious of nothing but -darkness. - -My ideas wandered for a moment, but, noticing a ray of light at my feet, -I found the key of the enigma: some lascars had brought the piano down -to the cellar to be more at their ease. At the foot of some ten steps, -or rather of a steep slope—I learnt afterwards that, in coming down -stairs, the piano had done the work of a “105”—I had only to pull a -canvas curtain aside slightly to see what was going on inside. It was an -affecting scene. - -Some ten men lay on mattresses listening to the musician, who was seated -on a small cask, playing the same waltz over and over again, probably the -only thing he knew, with his great clumsy fingers. There was something -in the look of each of these men analogous to that of intoxication from -opium, or to the fascination on his subject of a mesmerist. Above, the -shells began to fall again; below, they had forgotten the war, because -they listened to a tune they loved, and, music is all-powerful over -simple hearts. - -I remember this episode as one of the most picturesque souvenirs of the -war. I stayed in that cellar playing to them for more than an hour. They -were drunk with pleasure and with dreams of home. That night I could have -led them to the assault, even to the cannon’s mouth. - -Next day, the 24th of January, réveillé was sounded at three o’clock. - -At four o’clock we fell in. We were going into the second line trenches. - - Our “dug-out” was a little rectangular room five mètres long by - two mètres wide, cut in the stiff soil, stayed up with planks, - covered with beams and roofed with earth.[3] It was dark as an - oven. It was entered by an opening so narrow that my pack could - not pass, and to get to this door, if one could call it a door, - one had to perform prodigies from the roadside onwards to avoid - being bogged up to the knees. There was a little straw on the - floor, and the furniture consisted of a chair. - - There we were going to take up our residence, my seven men and - I—Dhuic, Laroche, Ponnery, Bobet, Thiérard, Emmanuel and that - terrible-looking fellow Hurel, with his vulture’s face and - insane alcoholic eye. I can see him now at the bottom of the - trench, his face emerging from a sheep-skin coat which made - him look more than ever like a wild beast. “If the Bosches - catch sight of you,” an unindulgent comrade said to him, “they - will certainly clear out in double-quick time.” - - We got here from Nieuport at four o’clock in the morning. The - regiment was closed up and the men stumbled at each step over - the débris of houses, which littered the road. Dead silence - reigned, and the cold north wind of early morning made our eyes - water. No shells or bullets were flying, but we heard from time - to time the noise of tiles falling from some roof or the din - of a falling skirt of wall. Star shell were being used, and - each time they lit up the country they made us jumpy, for we - presumed that they would be followed by a shell only too well - placed. - - Day dawned, and I came cautiously out of my hole to have a - look at the country. The human imagination never, I imagine, - has conceived, nor ever can picture, anything sadder or more - desolate than what I saw. I found myself on the road leading - from Nieuport to Saint-Georges at a point almost equally - distant from both of these remains of towns. The banked-up road - meandered over an immense muddy plain, necked with pools of - grey water, now frozen. Nieuport was on my right. From here - I could not see a single house which was, I won’t say intact, - but only damaged by the bombardment. It was a heap of gutted - buildings, crumbling walls and twisted and broken trees. On my - left was Saint-Georges, in if anything worse state. Nothing - remained but a pile of stones, and one would never have - supposed that a village had once existed there. - - By the side of my trench there was a freshly made grave, - that is to say a square of mud surmounted by a white cross. - The cap of a marine lay by its side. I picked it up; it was - full of brains. The poor fellow must have been killed on this - very spot, and yesterday probably, mown down perhaps by that - same shell which had pierced two neighbouring trees with its - murderous fragments. - - As I re-entered my trench the sharp clatter of our batteries - disturbed the air. They were placed quite near us, and well - hidden, for I could see nothing of them. I supposed that this - was the opening of the ball and that the enemy’s reply would - not be long in coming. Some of my men had come out. I made - them get back again quickly, and treated Hurel to a kick from - behind. The men become as quiet as sheep when there is danger - about. One of them warmed me some coffee on a solid fuel - spirit-lamp, and another let me make a pillow of his abdomen. - - _25th January, 1915._—We were relieved at 5 o’clock and - returned safe and sound to Nieuport. I found the cellar - transformed, thanks to Clère and Hénon; there was a light, a - table covered with a cloth and some crockery. They had looted - these things from the town, and I did not find fault with them - for doing so, for these articles were safer where they were - than in the ruins exposed at any moment to squalls of shell. - - The bombardment had kept on increasing until past midday. It - was dangerous to go outside. Every half-hour I made a round to - make the men get back into their cellars. We made some tea, - but the water came from the Yser, which was carrying down dead - bodies, and the tea smelt of death. We could not drink it. - - The ration cart arrived to an accompaniment of shells. We did - not take long to unload it. - - _26th January, 1915._—At midday a French aëroplane flew over - the dunes. It was bombarded at times, and it let fall some - silver trails which sparkled in the sky like the scales of - fish.[4] - - * * * * * - - To-night we buried a dragoon belonging to the 16th, who had - been killed some days before in the course of a reconnaissance. - The body was already at the cemetery, covered with earth, and - we brought the coffin, carried by two soldier grave-diggers. - It preceded, by some paces, the silent cortège formed by the - Captain, M. Chatelin, the priest, two non-commissioned officers - and myself. We crossed the canal bridge a little before - midnight. - - A sentry, petrified by cold, asked us for the countersign, - which was given, and we went on our way, avoiding the white - patches of moonlight which might have betrayed our presence. - - The rusted gate of the cemetery creaked lamentably as we - entered onto the holy ground that the shells had failed to - respect. They had hollowed monstrous and gaping graves that - yawned under our feet, laying bare, completely or partially, - the skeletons and corpses. A stiff north wind was blowing, - bending the slim shrubs and agitating the grass and the rotten - crosses as in a danse macabre. It was the devil of a night, and - I admit that we all shivered, preferring the risks of a charge - in full daylight to this sinister and furtive work. Every two - or three minutes a star shell traced a lovely curve of diamonds - in the sky, and, instinctively, we put our heads down in - silence. Four men dug the grave. We uncovered the poor body, - which had been covered with a thin layer of earth. It had been - wrapped up in sacking, like the big quarters of beef that are - unloaded from the supply carts when rations are given out. - - It was the most lamentable thing I have ever seen. - - Everything was hurried through in a few minutes. The coffin was - too big. The Captain put into it an envelope containing the - name of the soldier who was going to rest there between the - lines, and who would be crooned to sleep by the noise of shells. - - The wind shook the surplice of the priest who recited the - prayers, and I heard only a confused murmur of odd phrases, for - the wind carried off the rest. We had to hurry, for the quiet - moments were rare, and we returned through the dark deserted - streets in impressive silence. - - _Nieuport, 29th January, 1915._—To form an exact idea of - what this very peculiar war is like one must have lived the - twenty-four hours that I have just passed through—a bitterly - cold winter’s day and night. - - We set out to occupy the first line trenches at 4 o’clock. - The night was clear and frosty, and the stars glittered like - splinters of ice. A clear and cold moon lit up the immensity - of the ravaged and desolated plain, making the ice glitter, - silhouetting the traitorous and dangerous ruins, betraying our - position by the glint from our bayonets, while the frost-bound - ground conducted sound to a great distance. - - As far as the post from which the second-line trenches were - commanded the road was good and the distance easy; but from - there onwards the carrying out of reliefs became hazardous. We - marched in single file, holding our bayonets in our left hands - to prevent them from knocking against our rifles, raising our - feet and going on tiptoe, as in a sick-room. The road became - atrociously bad, it being impossible to repair it owing to - the nearness of the enemy. Nothing was wanting, ruts, holes, - fencing wire, overturned fencing posts, etc. The squadron - occupied some trenches on the right. These were arrow-shaped, - and were the nearest trenches to the enemy. - - Seventeen of us held the main trench, and in an adjacent - one were two marines with a small pom-pom trench gun. These - were called trenches; in reality they consisted of sloping - beams laid against an embankment of stones and sand-bags. We - had to crawl into them, and, once in, we were condemned to - immobility. We could not even sit down without bending our - heads. Little by little the cold took hold of us, beginning - with our feet, and we felt as if we were transformed into - blocks of ice. - - The wind brought us a suggestive odour, which mingled with - the smell of rotting litter on which we were lying. We felt - inclined to vomit. Day came and brought the need for absolute - immobility. It was impossible to risk oneself outside the - trench, even flat on one’s belly, until night-time. M. Chatelin - and I shivered side by side, and inspected the horizon - through field-glasses. On the left we saw some suspicious - smoke, and the same distance off, on the right, we found - the explanation of the stink we had smelt on our arrival. - A score of German corpses were there, caught between their - barbed-wire entanglement and ours, and destined to rot there - for an undetermined period. They were in all sorts of poses - and horribly mutilated. Some bodies were without heads, some - heads and arms were lying separated and all the bodies were in - convulsive postures. A number of crows were disputing their - bodies, as were some half-wild cats, which refused the meat - we offered them—a pretty sight indeed; happily there were no - French bodies amongst them. - - The artillery opened the ball about eight o’clock. We were - almost in the middle, and well below the trajectory of the - shells. We saw some shells strike their target—some farms, - that fell to pieces—but many missed. That, however, was of no - account. - - From the direction of Lombaertzyde a sudden thunder resounded, - and for the whole of the afternoon the earth was shaken by a - bombardment which nothing could describe. To represent it one - must think of a furious sea, an express at full speed, lowing - of cattle, cat-calls, creakings; one must think of a mixture of - all these sounds forming a sort of savage harmony. In the rays - of the rising sun Lombaertzyde was crowned with plumes of black - and white smoke, made by the bursting shells. - - Nothing else happened till evening. The night was less - monotonous, for, in spite of the pitiless moonlight, one could - go out. We looked on with much interest at a raid by two - aëroplanes, which marked down an enemy’s trench and a supply - convoy with luminous bombs. An instant afterwards the “75’s” - hit hard. Towards midnight seven shots were let off from the - listening post. I said to myself, “At last, here comes the - attack.” I shook up my men, benumbed with cold and sleep; but - dead silence again fell. - - It was freezing hard enough to split stones. Over a surface - of several kilomètres the newly formed ice cracked and made - one think that an advance was taking place. Little Duval, in a - moment of hallucination, fired on the dead bodies, mistaking - them for skirmishers. - - From time to time an imperceptible breeze distinctly brought us - the sound of the enemy at work. We heard the blows of mallets, - used doubtless to consolidate his wire entanglements. I made - our freezing men do the same. - - M. Chatelin and I walked up and down or made reconnaissances - simply for the sake of keeping on the move. On the plain I - stumbled on the body of a dragoon between two frozen pools. - His head was wrapped up in hay, but he was frozen so hard that - we could not move him. I tried to lift him by his belt, but it - broke in my hands. Two cats, a white one and an Angora, seemed - annoyed at being deranged. Oh, the horror of it! - - Décatoire had his feet frost-bitten and was unable to walk. - M. Chatelin and I returned to the trench, and, huddled up one - against the other, we passed the remaining hours of that trying - night in shivering. - - At five o’clock the 5th Chasseurs relieved us. - - * * * * * - -Long weeks followed, during which the cavalry, become useless on account -of the time of year and the novel trench warfare, remained inactive far -from the front in muddy rest-camps. - -Officers and men were sent by turns into the trenches for eight or ten -days at a time, being taken there in motor omnibuses. - -When we returned to regimental headquarters we led an ordinary barrack -life there. The admirable unity which made us all brothers in the firing -line had a tendency to relax in face of the pettiness of ordinary -military duty. Peace-time jealousies showed themselves during our forced -inactivity, when our tour of service did not call us far from our horses -to dismounted fighting. For this reason, and as I was desirous of living -again and renewing acquaintance with those intoxicating hours to which -one becomes accustomed as a necessary factor in life, preferring, in -short, to perform the duties of a foot-soldier with real infantry men, -knowing their duties and suitably equipped, rather than to degenerate -into a dismounted dragoon, I asked to be appointed 2nd Lieutenant in an -infantry regiment as soon as the ministerial circular concerning cavalry -non-commissioned appeared. Fifteen days later my request was granted. - -I was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant on February 3rd. The 22nd were at -Volckerinkove. M. de Vesian told me of my appointment, and a few -hours later I was sent with the others who had been recently -promoted—Fuéminville, Marin and Paris—to the headquarters of the 5th -Division, and from there to Poperinghe to the headquarters of the 9th -Army Corps. - -In spite of my decision, taken freely of my own accord, I was very sorry -to leave the 22nd. It was for me a page turned over, something finished. -I passed down the ranks and shook hands with all those comrades by whose -side I had marched, slept and fought for six months, and then, without -looking behind me, I set off on horseback on a fine sunny day. - -Having been posted to the 90th Regiment of the Line, I followed a course -of instruction at Vlamertinghe, with the newly gazetted officers from -Saint-Cyr. After fifteen days of a monotonous and tranquil life the class -broke up on the 21st. On the morning of the 22nd I rejoined the 90th, and -the same evening we left to go into action. - -In February I was again in the trenches, those which I occupied affording -me great amusement. We left at half-past eight in the morning, and we -had eighteen kilomètres to march. At Ypres we made a few minutes’ halt -on the edge of the pavement before the celebrated Cloth Hall. I looked -eagerly around me, wishing to fix the sights which met my eyes. They were -intensely picturesque and of peculiar interest. When the war is over -shall we ever again see such a picture? It is not likely. - -Night had come. It was a time propitious for reliefs, hence everywhere -feverish activity reigned. All lights in the town were masked. Under a -moon, luminous as shining chalk, the cathedral and the Cloth Hall were of -a dazzling white, which made the gaping wounds which the shells have made -in the stonework all the blacker and more apparent. - -The scudding clouds masked the moon for a moment, and everything faded -from view, or rather, as in a kaleidoscope, the ever-changing shadows -changed the forms of the ruins. Sudden beams of light rested for a moment -like furtive phantoms on the stonework, to disappear a second later. -On the edge of the horizon star shell were being thrown up, pitting -the night with a white or green fixed star, or appearing as a diamond -spray held by some invisible hand, to sparkle a moment and then vanish. -The silence was cut by the regular cadence of the march of the various -companies towards the neighbouring sectors. - -They debouched from every cross-road. There were French, Belgians and -English, the latter whistling in chorus, “It’s a long long way to -Tipperary,” and keeping step to it. As soon as they saw us by common -accord they started the _Marseillaise_—a charming courtesy—and strange -and rapid dialogues were exchanged between the “poilus” and the “Tommies” -in a language so untranslatable, so indescribable, that most of the men -burst out laughing at hearing themselves speak. Then some guns crossed -the _place_ at the trot making a deafening noise. - -Every unit had its destination, its appointed place and perfect order -prevailed. Those back from the trenches are glad at the prospect of rest; -those going there are light-hearted also, and so the active ant-heap -swarms with busy people. - -From time to time shell would fall in the town, crumbling still further -the marvellous Cloth Hall or causing irreparable damage to the humble -house of some inoffensive civilian. It was stupid and useless. - -From Zonnebeck onwards the ground was swept by rifle fire, and we had -to cross a horseshoe sector exposed to fire from all sides. It was -impossible to find cover, and the relief was extremely difficult and -dangerous. Then it was that I made acquaintance with the new and the -unknown. - -New trenches, new customs. We groped our way through a little pine -wood. Every now and then a bullet struck the trunk of a tree with such -a loud and sharp sound that the drum of one’s ear was all but torn. -Insensibly the company advanced along the cutting which got deeper and -deeper under ground. Soon one was in up to the shoulders, and the deeper -the communication trench got the deeper we got into mud and water. I -pretended to myself that we were figures in some “attraction” at Luna -Park or the Magic City. We were in a labyrinth which turned to the right -and left, doubled back on itself and got deeper and more difficult at -each step, while “the bees” passed whistling over our heads. - -There was a sudden stop, just as I had given up hope of ever seeing the -end. The section in front of me emerged into a trench, and a ray of light -fell on the wet clay at my feet. A form leaned out of a hole, and a voice -said to me, “This way, sir; this is your command post.” Hardly had I -entered when the curtain which masked the door fell again, to shut in the -light. I found myself in a tiny square room constructed entirely of rough -logs, that is to say of the trunks of pine trees. It was buried under a -mountain of earth, very solidly beaten down, and it had a brick fireplace -in which a good coke fire blazed (within 100 mètres of the enemy). There -was a bed, or rather a straw mattress, which exactly filled up the middle -of this “casba.” The other half was taken up by a stand on which were -ranged miscellaneous objects—gum boots, tin boxes, grenades, petards, -flares, etc. One could not stand up, but lying down one felt like a king. - -The network of trenches which unites the sections was so complicated -that I lost myself in it every time. In the early morning I made a -reconnaissance of the neighbouring sections. At places the parapet became -so low that, even by stooping, one was not completely under cover. My -presence was hailed by a salvo which passed whistling over my head. - - _24th February, 1915._—It snowed last night. The trenches - are white and my “poilus” are cold. And so am I! A man of my - section has just been wounded in the head by a bullet which - ricochetted off a bayonet. But, generally speaking, the Germans - leave us in peace. - - _Six o’clock._—My trench has been demolished in part by a - “105.” We shall have to work all night to repair it. - - _26th February, 1915._—Under cover of fog I left my shelter - and had some wire entanglements made. The men were able to - work without drawing fire. _Per contra_ a German patrol came - exploring, counting on the fog for concealment. Having arrived - opposite Règues’s section, they must have lost their way and - pitched straight on to us. We hit three of them. All the - morning, fifty mètres off, we saw them wriggling and raising - their legs, and we heard them crying out. It was impossible to - go to bring them in, the Germans would have fired on us. One - of them signalled that he was ready to surrender. He put up - his hands and cried, “Kamarad, Kamarad,” so he can’t be badly - wounded. We could see him rise, unbuckle his belt and throw off - his pack. My men, very pleased, were ready to receive him with - open arms, but he regained his own lines at a bound. We let off - a salvo, but the “Kamarad” had already disappeared. The two - others kept on wriggling like worms. - - _2nd March, 1915._—I am occupying a new sector, not nearly - so good as the first; trench fallen in, full of water, - communications difficult, no comfortable command post; I sleep - on the hard ground in the cold. My predecessor, when giving me - my instructions, warned me that for two days past we had been - badly shelled. - - _3rd March._—At 8.30 the first shell, a “105,” came over and - pitched some mètres from my post. I was almost thrown out of - the dug-out; earth and mud flew in all directions, and shell - fragments fell with a sharp noise. Some moments after a second - one came over, then a third and then, for three-quarters of an - hour, they fell without ceasing. - - All the shells fell on my left. The men were a little pale in - face of this form of danger, against which there is nothing - to be done. After a quarter of an hour the trench became - untenable, the shelters, the parapets, the dug-out, were all - tumbling down. Sometimes the shock and the displacement of air - threw us in bunches one against the other. - - I remained at the command post until the next dug-out was - knocked to pieces, burying a man under the ruins. I then caused - the whole section to be evacuated, except by a watcher, and I - asked hospitality from a 2nd lieutenant of machine-guns. - - At last the storm calmed down and I sent everyone back to his - place. The trench was a veritable timber yard, and rifles and - mess tins littered the ground. The parapet by the side of my - shelter was knocked down level with the ground, leaving a - gaping opening that we must repair to-night. - - _Six o’clock._—After the tension of such a morning I heard with - pleasure the cry of “Stand to your arms.” Each man flew to his - rifle; they too, I think, were pleased. I had gone back to see - my comrade the machine-gunner, but it did not take me long to - cover the thirty or forty mètres of trench which separated me - from my men. - - How good a thing it was to hear this crackle of rifle fire - after the disquieting row of the “105’s”! “Stand to the - machine-gun.” I saw with pleasure the four men at their gun, - and I admired the graceful movement of the man who crouched to - fire and who, unconsciously, assumed the posture of an animal - ready to spring. Unfortunately the enemy were not “for it.” At - our first shots the Germans got back into their trenches. - - _27th March._—We arrived yesterday in the second line, or - rather in reserve. The huts are in a pine wood, surrounded with - ridges. We arrived by moonlight. The bullets passed high and - struck the tops of the trees. These huts are in the form of a - redskin’s wigwam, made of earth and sacking. To-day we went - hunting with revolvers and we killed a rabbit! We cooked it - ourselves and enjoyed it for dinner. - - _28th March._—The enemy leaves us in peace. Not a shell, not - the least little “77.” We went hunting again and brought back - a pheasant. After supper Maugenot and I intend to go and play - cards with Captain Lametz, a little in front of our trenches. - We must cross a glacis in front of the ridge; the bullets come - over there head high. We slipped along the edge of the wood to - take advantage of the lie of the land; and then all at once - we said, “So much the worse,” and we crossed the field at - its widest part. We jumped the parapet of an old trench and - we arrived at the 1st company. Captain Lametz has his post - buried in a wood. We played, seated cross-legs on the ground, - by candlelight. The rest of the post were asleep, rolled up - in blankets. The moonlight peered into the dug-out each time - that the wind blew aside the canvas of the tent. In coming - back Maugenot and I were almost stopped by bullets, chance - bullets, be it understood, which fell with regularity and in - disconcerting abundance, often, as they struck the ground, - hitting some shell fragments which would ring like glasses - knocked together. - - To save time Maugenot suggested taking a short cut, and he - succeeded in entangling us in an inextricable network of - barbed wire. It was too late to draw back, we had to jump and - crawl. We arrived, however, at the hut safe and sound, but our - great-coats were badly torn. - - _29th March._—A man had been killed some little time ago. While - I write I am looking at the cortège which has brought him back. - The body, a little bent, is carried on an improvised stretcher - by four men and is wrapped up in the canvas of a tent, tinted - red where it has touched his wound. The little procession - advances with difficulty in the narrow communication trench, - and every two or three steps a drop of blood falls and stains - the ground like a star, brown-red, and the cortège may be - traced by these as far as the grave. - -Such was the daily life of almost the whole army during the winter -months. Though monotonous, I have thought it well to transcribe these few -passages from my daily journal, for they are human documents. In spring -the benumbed army stirred itself, stretched its legs and awoke to the -fact that a new era was about to begin. The change took place with the -greatest mystery. News, come no one knew whence, began to circulate. - -When we left Belgium on the 30th March some extravagant hypotheses took -shape. Haute-Alsace, the Argonne, the Dardanelles and Turkey were spoken -of. The least bellicose would have it that we were to rest near Lyons; -but no one knew anything, and each day we went farther south-west, being -ignorant even of the billets we would occupy that evening. - -So we passed Saint-Omer, Arneke, Pilens, Blingel, Frévent, -Avesne-le-Comte, etc.... and we approached Arras, whose town hall and -belfry we saw one morning profiled in a blue haze against a spectral sky. - -On passing through Arneke on the 8th of April we marched past General -Foch headed by our band. When the regiment had passed by he sent for the -officers. We were all presented to him, and he had us formed up in a -circle to say a few words to us. - -Listening to the General was like experiencing a species of shock. He -hammered out his words and scanned his phrases in a manner which made us -feel ill at ease. His speech was a flagellation, and we felt a sort of -moral abaissement as a result of it. His look seized upon and held us. He -brought us to bay and then crushed us. - -First he spoke to us of our mission, of the utility of training the men -in view of the coming fatigues. “Train their arms, train their legs, -train their muscles, train their backs. You possess fine qualities, -draw on them from the soles of your feet, if necessary, but get them -into your heads. I have no use for people who are said to be animated by -good intentions. Good intentions are not enough; I want people who are -determined to get there and who do.” - -There are shreds of his phrases that remain graven on my memory, curt -short phrases, punctuated by a sharp gesture, or by an indescribable look -of the eye: “If you want to overturn that wall, don’t blunt your bayonet -point on it; what is necessary is to break it, shatter it, overturn it, -stamp on it and walk over the ruins, _for we are going to walk over -ruins_. If we have not already done so”—and here he suddenly lowered his -voice and gave it an intonation almost mysterious—“_it is because we were -not ready_. We lacked explosives, bombs, grenades, minerwerfers, which -now we have. And we are going to be able to strike, _for we have a stock_ -such as you cannot even have an idea of. We are going to swamp the enemy, -strike him everywhere at once: in his defences, in his morale, harass -him, madden him, crush him; we will march over nothing but ruins.” - -Then he went off quite naturally, without any theatrical effect. He said -just what he had to say, and he did not add a word too many. He saluted -us: “I hope, gentlemen, to have the honour of seeing you again.” A moment -later his motor-car was carrying him off towards Cassel, leaving us -deeply stirred and impressed by his spoken words and no less influenced -by his personality. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE ATTACK AT LOOS - -9th May, 1915 - - -On April the 29th, ten days before the attack, we were taking our last -great rest at Noyelette in a setting which resembled a scene from a comic -opera. The apple trees were in full bloom and the blossom fell like -snow. In the radiant peace of early spring we lay on the scented grass, -listening to the ripples on the little stream. For many of us it was -destined to be a last pleasure and a last caress which Nature was pleased -to lavish on those of her children who were about to die. - - _6th May: In the first line._—We relieved the 256th in the - first-line trenches near Mazingarbe, on the road to Lens. - That relief by a reserve regiment confirmed the rumour of an - offensive. As we passed through Nœux-les-Mines and Mazingarbe - even the civilians said to us, “Sure enough you are going to - attack, aren’t you? See to it that you push them back once and - for all!” - - _7th May._—The great moment, so long expected, has come. - To-morrow the 10th Army is going to attack on the Lille-Arras - front. My battalion is to advance straight forward with Hill - 70 for objective on this side of Loos. I made a reconnaissance - of the sector. To-night I am going to inspect the German - barbed-wire entanglements with Stivalet. I am quite calm and - very well prepared; my only fear is that I may do badly and - commit some fault. That the men will go forward, I am sure. My - battalion forms the first line, the 2nd and the 3rd come next, - then the 125th and the 68th line regiments, while the 256th and - the 281st are on the right and left and are to converge to a - point. - - _Two o’clock p.m._—The French guns are beginning to shell the - enemy. The batteries are landing shell just in front of our - trench and so near that I am beginning to think that there must - be an error in the range. The mere fact of having to wait is - a torture, to know nothing and to say, “Is it to be in five - minutes, this evening or to-morrow?” My heart beats hard and my - throat is dry. I would give anything for the order to attack, - for I know that then I should at once recover my calm. - - The four sections have orders to advance to their front towards - the Lens road, to take the German trenches and then make - for Hill 70 by way of Loos. I distributed some asphyxiating - bombs, hand grenades to my section, and little bags containing - cotton previously soaked in a bisulphite and which must be - dipped again into lime water at the last moment and introduced - into the mouth and nostrils to neutralise the effects of - asphyxiating gas. - - _Four o’clock._—The shelling is still going on, but it has lost - the unheard-of violence with which it started. The remainder - of the guns are to arrive to-night and consequently the attack - cannot take place before to-morrow. - - Everyone is at work; the Engineers are making steps and - finishing saps; Artillerymen walk about in the communication - trenches with range-finders with which they accomplish - mysterious rites, asking me politely to move as I am in the - way. Officers of all battalions are reconnoitring the sector, - and the men are sewing bits of white canvas on their packs so - that they may be recognized at a distance by our artillery. One - would say that a costume play was in course of being mounted - and that the last preparations were being made for the opening - performance. - - At ten minutes to nine I returned to my command post. I - examined my revolver carefully, took off my tunic and put my - money and my papers in my trousers pocket. I slipped my cloak - on over my shirt, put my revolver in the inside pocket and I - got out of the trench. I gave a last warning to my men not to - fire, even if they heard firing. - - Stivalet was there; we got over the parapet at nine o’clock - exactly, and we had chosen a bit of known ground between two - _chevaux de frise_. It was very dark; scarcely had we started - than a star shell lit up the sky. We threw ourselves flat on - the ground on our faces. I felt the wet grass and moist soil - on my cheeks and on the palms of my hands. I listened to my - breathing and I could not feel the beatings of my heart. I was - perfectly calm. - - For two or three minutes we groped our way across the wire of - the _chevaux de frise_. When we had passed it we came on an - old network of rusted barbed wire all broken up by shell fire, - and our feet and cloaks got entangled in it. We crawled on our - hands and knees and each time that a star shell burst we threw - ourselves flat, as before. - - The critical moment had arrived. Stivalet hailed me in a low - voice, “This is a rotten trip we are making.” He whispered in - my ear, “It is too dark, we shall see nothing.” I said to him, - “All right, you stay here, I am going farther on.” - - I crawled on alone. I felt perturbed at being alone in the - black night with all these rifle muzzles pointed at me. I was - at the mercy of a flare. I went on as well as I could, without - a sound, trying to blend with the ground. I went on for I don’t - know how long or how far. Then I looked up and I saw the German - entanglements close beside me. I distinctly heard talking going - on; unfortunately I did not understand a word of it. There was - no object in delaying further, my mission was over. I had seen - their defences; they were only _chevaux de frise_, united by - barbed wire. As I turned, two rockets went off and crossed. I - thought that I was lost and I stayed still with my head on my - arms and my face to the ground, biting the grass; but nothing - happened; not a shot was fired. - - I started off then to crawl with a speed which astonished - myself, using my feet, shoulders and elbows to help me along. - I arrived at the spot where I had left Stivalet, and in no - time we had jumped back into our trench. My clothes were so - caked with mud that they stuck to me like a jersey. I made a - report to Maugenot, whom I found asleep. On the table of the - dug-out was a note from the Major. The attack was to take - place to-morrow. The day would be given over to a minute - reconnaissance of the sector, and everything would be ready - for the attack, to take place probably during the night of the - 8th-9th. - - _8th May, 1915._—Unless counter-ordered the attack is to take - place to-morrow at six in the morning, after four consecutive - hours of shell fire. There are a thousand guns behind us, one - for every fifty mètres of terrain to be battered. - - Nothing happened during the morning. New bombs were given - out, and each man was to have at least one. From two in the - afternoon the artillery corrected its shooting, which is - equivalent in ordinary times to a very violent bombardment. - - From my parapet I followed the phases of this correction. The - redan on the Lens road blew up at two o’clock; the defences - before my trench were knocked to bits. At this moment, 6.40, - the artillery fired a little short. The men in the trench - could not get on with their dinners; they were covered with - earth and little bits of steel, and the water fatigue had some - splinters sent among them—two men of the 5th were wounded. - - I have got for my section 7 asphyxiating bombs, 9 Beszzi bombs, - 48 hand grenades and 5 terrible chedite bombs, which I have - primed myself, and of which I intend to carry two. - - What a carnage is being prepared for to-morrow! I remembered - the prophecy of Father Johannes, “Only the great princes and - the great captains will be buried; there will be so many dead - and wounded that the bodies will be burnt on pyres whose flames - will mount to the skies.” - - _9th May, 1915, 4.30 a.m._—I am ordered to line up my men. - A company of Engineers has joined us in order to excavate a - communicating trench as soon as we have cleared out. Far away - on the left—probably from the English lines—the guns are firing - without interruption. It sounds like a hoarse roar. - - 5.15 and no order to attack has been received; it seems long in - coming. - - The guns were still thundering on the left, but ours were - silent. I would give a lot to know! - - _Seven o’clock._—Orders have come; we are to attack at 10 - o’clock precisely. There is to be no signal; all our watches - have been synchronised. We are all to start together from our - trenches at the same time. We shelled the enemy violently for - an hour, but, as that was too little, we are going to shell - them again from 9 to 10. The big winged bombs made a thunderous - din; we could see them rise in the air like shuttlecocks and - fall lightly to earth again. They looked as though they were - going to rebound, but they burst at once, each like a miniature - volcano in eruption. - - For the second time I was astonished to find myself so calm. I - could not realise that in so short a time (what are two hours?) - there was going to be a wild rush, a hand-to-hand fight, - hideous and disfigured corpses everywhere, and perhaps death - for me. I had only the fixed idea that everything was going - well. I was acutely conscious that I was responsible for the - lives of fifty men. - - * * * * * - -Though wounded at the beginning of the attack, and sole survivor of all -the officers of the company and of a neighbouring company of the 114th -regiment of the line, I was, nevertheless, still able to carry on till 8 -o’clock at night. - -At 9 o’clock A.M. I precipitated the ammoniacal solution and all the men -soaked their pads in it. Everyone had his bomb. While I was finishing -these last preparations shells and bombs seemed to crush the enemy’s -lines. The noise was deafening and the smoke suffocating and blinding. I -should like to shut my eyes and pass in review each scene which followed, -forgetting none. In a few moments I consider that I lived the sum total -of a lifetime. - -At a quarter to ten all were lined up, pack on back. The section of -Engineers stuck to the communicating trench so as not to hinder our -movements. I placed myself in the centre and took out my watch; still ten -minutes to go! I called in a loud voice, “Five minutes,” “Two minutes.” -I had a stealthy look at the men and I saw on their faces so tense an -expression, something so fixed, that they seemed to be in a trance. - -As I cried, “Only half a minute more!” I saw the left of the company -starting off; they had some mètres start of me. At all costs we must keep -touch, so I shouted, “Forward,” and ran straight at the German line, -without seeing or hearing anything. I had a vague consciousness that the -“75” guns had not yet increased their range, but we were no longer our -own masters. Thousands of men, their minds fixed on the same purpose, -rushed forward blindly. - -As I arrived at the first German entanglement I turned round. Everyone -had followed; the men were at my heels. A second later we were leaping -over the parapet of the enemy’s first line. I yelled, “Don’t get into the -communicating trench; the trench is empty, except for a few stragglers; -get on and seize the second line.” - -The blue cloaks bounded forward together and the bayonets shone under a -burning sun, for there was not a cloud in the sky. - -Now, with our heads down, we entered the zone of Hell. - -There is no word, sound or colour that can give an idea of it. To prevent -our advance the Germans had made a barrier of fire, and we had to go -through a sort of suffocating vapour. We went through sheaves of fire, -from which burst forth percussion and time shells at such short intervals -that the soil opened every moment under our feet. I saw, as in a dream, -tiny silhouettes, drunk with battle, charging through the smoke. - -The terrified Germans, caught between their own artillery fire and our -bayonets, sprang up from everywhere; some cried for mercy; others turned -round like madmen, whilst others again threw themselves upon us to drive -us back. - -Shells had made ravages in the ranks. I saw groups of five or six -crushed and mown down. I caught a momentary glimpse of Petit, the -corporal, at the head of a group of men, and I forgot everything else and -shouted to him, “Go it: bravo, Petit!” His Herculean figure, moulded in -a woollen jersey, was standing on a hillock, wielding his rifle like a -windmill. Careless of shot and shell, his terrible bayonet running with -blood, he seemed the very incarnation of the war. All my life I shall see -him, bareheaded, covered with blood and sweat, leading the others on to -carnage; and the blue sky behind. - -My section and I kept pressing on, and we were now within a few mètres of -the last of the German lines. At every step grey uniforms now surged. I -discharged my revolver to right and left. Cries and moans rose and fell -in the infernal din of that struggle. - -In a second we should be occupying the enemy’s last positions. What -remained of my section followed me blindly. I put my foot on the parapet -and cried, “Forward, lads, here we are!” then I felt as though someone -had suddenly given me a brutal blow in the back with the butt-end of a -rifle. I let go my revolver and the chedite bomb, which I had in my left -hand, and I rolled to the bottom of a shell hole. - -I was hit! - -In a flash I remembered a phrase of my orderly’s, overheard by chance -yesterday, “If anything happens to the little lieutenant he won’t be -left behind,” and a moment later this brave fellow, himself wounded in -the arm, was at my side, and with two or three others, carried me to -the trench. In front of us nothing was left, not a defence, not a wire -entanglement. We had carried the German lines to their uttermost limits. - -We at once set to work to dig ourselves in, whilst the men who were not -digging kept a look-out. We asked ourselves from what direction the -Germans would try to outflank us, for we knew nothing about the trenches -that had been carried. All at once I saw two of them coming out of a -little communicating trench with their bayonets at the charge. I blew out -the brains of the first; the second, a veritable lad of about sixteen, -had a terrified expression which I shall never forget. He yelled, and his -strident cries made me shudder; but my pistol went off, and he fell on -the ground on his face. - -During the whole of the attack I had not for an instant seen my company -commander, and I wondered where he was. My colour-sergeant told me -that the Major and he had been killed, that Lieutenant Desessart was -badly wounded and that Lieutenant Règues and I were the only officers -left in the company. Règues took command, and, seated on the parapet, -superintended the preparations for defence. The guns were silent.... -Alone the whistle of bullets was heard, and warning cries were raised: -“Look out on the left; look out on the right; they are coming from such -and such a trench.” - -Then a bullet struck Règues fair on the head. He rolled over at my feet, -and the sole command devolved on me. I myself was wounded; the blood was -running from my back, and my movements were paralysed. My men wanted me -to go back, but I stiffened myself up with the energy of despair. Someone -passed me a flask of ether and I propped myself against the parapet. I -was alone in command; I had all my faculties about me, and I determined -to stay there whatever happened. - -Up till two o’clock nothing did happen. We feverishly dug shelters to -fire from, and made traverses to protect the trench which was in part -open to enfilade. As far as the road everything had gone well, but, from -that point on, connection was broken. The rest of the 90th were behind -and parallel with me, some mètres off; the Germans there had retained -their positions. Though we could not see them, they were there quite -near, concealed, gone to earth but ready to spring on us. - -Lying almost helpless at the foot of the trench I gave my orders, which -the men, one and all, carried out with remarkable presence of mind. -Enervating hours slowly slipped by. The sun scorched the trench; some of -the bodies took on a deep yellow colour, and their wounds were horrible. - -To stop our reinforcements the Germans pitched shells behind the first -lines. In the communicating trenches, where the Engineers, the 125th and -the 68th, were massed, they must, I felt, be having a hot time. Even in -the trench shells fell both before and behind. I had three men killed. -Grossain had his head carried away. - -With midday came some relaxation. Work eased off a little; the men -rummaged in their haversacks; Pillard brought me some cigars, Henry -Clays, and some Egyptian cigarettes. Mayet dressed my wound in a summary -fashion, passing his hand through the rent in my cloak. The opening was -as big as my fist. I suffered horrible pain. - -The sergeant and I, nevertheless, explored the captured sector. The -trenches have been knocked in by shell. In certain places it was open -ground for 25 mètres; in other parts corpses obstructed the way. As we -went by, some Germans, lying on their backs right in the sun, opened -their eyes and said, “Ich durste.” We had no time to stop, the guns might -open fire again at any moment, and it was essential to find some means of -communicating with the Colonel. - -When I got back to my men I found nothing changed. Mayet, fine fellow -that he is, was keeping a good look-out. The trench which barred the road -was consolidated, and we placed a machine-gun in it. I took under my -command a company on my left, as it had no officer left. - -At half-past one a kind of agitation, a tremor, ran from man to man, as -if the whole company had received an electric shock; yet there was no -cry, no shot fired. Yet everyone realised that the counter-attack was -about to be launched. - -I was amazed at the gaiety and good humour which prevailed. I wanted -to say a few words regarding their conduct, but there was little need -to sustain their morale. They shut me up by shouting, “Long live the -Lieutenant.” I was too overcome with emotion to reply. - -All of a sudden there came a burst of musketry. It was sharp and brutal, -and there was no hesitation about it. One felt that it was not the sort -of musketry fire that one might expect from dispirited men, firing -without taking the trouble to aim; on the contrary, each shot had its -target. I looked through my field-glasses in its direction; it was on my -left, about three hundred mètres off. - -The Germans, who were masters of a communication trench in front of us, -debouched from it and tried to rush us in column of fours. They did not -gain an inch of ground. Each section of fours was shot down. - -One cannot but render homage to such soldiers. A whole company was wiped -out, not a man rose again after he fell, not a man retreated. The second -counter-attack took shape on the right under the same conditions. The -Germans were massed in a communication trench parallel to the road. A -little later, again on the left, the enemy profited by a small wood to -concentrate his men and to attempt a sortie, and this again was stopped -short. - -They seemed to have resigned themselves to doing what we were doing. By -the aid of a periscope we could see them as far as their waist-belts. -They were smoking and waiting. To put one’s head up was to court death. -Maugenot was lying just beyond the parapet on the grass with his face to -the ground. Already he was the colour of wax. I determined to have him -picked up at night. - -The Colonel, at three o’clock, sent me the 7th company, under Captain -Dupont, as a reinforcement. I told him that I wanted to stay where I was. -That it was I and my men who had taken this ground, and therefore that it -was ours by right; so the Captain settled down on the right, and at least -I was no longer alone. - -I could gain no clue as to the real state of affairs from the complete -silence of the German artillery. There was a noise of waggons coming and -going on the higher ground, and this seemed to me to mean a fresh supply -of munitions. It was unfortunately impossible to communicate with our own -artillery. - -Seated at the bottom of the trench, I began to feel my senses deserting -me. When I was asked for orders I racked my brains in vain. I could not -find the right thing to say. I tried to joke with the men, but profound -melancholy possessed me, for I began to realise that I was no longer good -for anything. - -At 7 o’clock at night came the order for the attack which was preparing. -“The 3rd battalion will carry out the attack on the village of Loos, -taking the steeple as directing point, and joining up on the left with -the 114th. The first line units—the 3rd, 7th, 4th and 8th companies—will -be pushed forward by the attacking battalion. Preparations for this -movement must be made as soon as possible, but no move forward is to be -made till further orders.—_Signed_ Alquier.” - -Night fell rapidly. I was anxious to speak to the Colonel before the new -attack if I could get to him, and so I handed over command to Mayet. My -wound hurt me horribly. It felt as if my left shoulder were being torn -from my body, as though indeed I were being quartered. I had doubts as to -whether I could get to where I should find him, but I knew what could be -done if the will to do were strong. Alas! I was not to see the company -again, nor was I to succeed in finding the Colonel. - -On the way I walked like a drunken man, staggering from one wall of the -trench to the other. Sometimes I had to climb over pyramids of bodies, -sometimes I had to go right outside the trench, amidst the whistling of -bullets and the noise of shells, which burst on all sides. I reflected -sadly on how stupid it would be to be killed there, all alone, after -having so miraculously escaped during the fight. I met some men of the -Engineers, some prisoners and some messengers. Everyone was in a hurry, -and I automatically repeated the same phrase to each, “Look out, I am a -wounded officer, don’t hustle me.” I asked myself if it was possible to -suffer more than I did. A sort of continuous groaning sound escaped me, -my sight became blurred and I walked as if in delirium. - -I went round the same sector several times, asking everyone where the -Colonel was. - -And they would ask me, “What Colonel?” - -I had forgotten, and then everything became vague. I met two men with -fixed bayonets in charge of three prisoners. They gave me some red wine -and took me along with them. We passed a factory whose broken machinery -I saw profiled against the night sky. Then some stretcher-bearers picked -me up and carried me to the neighbouring aid post. From there I was sent -by ambulance to the divisional dressing station at Mazingarbe, where I -passed the night. - -The building was plunged into complete darkness for fear of being marked -down. Our big guns—the 120 long—were firing quite near, and at every -round the walls trembled and the window-panes rattled. One could well -picture oneself still in the thick of the fight. The noise of musketry -seemed to come from the garden, and I still remember clearly the sinister -sights that I saw there. Dimly made out in the shadow, the wounded were -lying on straw in rows on the ground. One only saw their silhouettes. -There were infantrymen, artillerymen and Algerian Light Infantry on -whom the white dressings stood out sharply. Amidst the roar of the guns -one would hear a long-drawn moan and some groans, cut short at times by -incoherent phrases. All of them raved. Officers and men lived through the -morning’s battle once again, and brief commands were uttered, infinitely -painful to listen to, “March in open order, by the right; stand by the -machine-gun,” and so on. As I stretched myself on some straw in the least -encumbered corner, I shivered with fever. The next morning we were all -sent on to Nœux-les-Mines, and from there we left by train for we knew -not where. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] French cavalry were equipped with the carbine, and not with the -infantry rifle as in the case of English. - -[2] Light infantry. - -[3] On reading the remarkable and charming book which my colleague, -Lieutenant Dupont, has published under the title _En Compagne_, I noticed -in one chapter such a similarity of phrase that I thought of changing -the beginning of this description, so as to avoid the appearance of a -plagiarism. I decided, however, not to alter its first form, but to leave -intact this page, which was written in the trenches on that very day 24th -January, 1915, long before Lieutenant Dupont’s book appeared. - -[4] These were darts and position-indicating rockets. - - - - -INDEX - - - A - - Agadir, 17 - - Alaire, Captain, killed, 52 - - Allies, rally of, at Verberie, 79 - - —— meeting of, 133 - - Alquier, orders received from, 161 - - Arneke, 141 - - Arras, 141 - - Authée, bivouac near, 36 - - —— departure from, 36 - - Ave, French dragoons billeted at, 34 - - —— French squadron ambushed at, 35 - - —— French departure from, 35 - - - B - - Baron, 85, 86 - - —— Château of, pillaged by Germans, 86 - - Basteigne, 29, 34 - - Bavarians, atrocities of, 76, 77 - - Bazeille, burning of, by Germans, 1870, 17 - - Beauraing, arrival of French at, 35 - - —— departure of French from, 35 - - —— ambush at, 35 - - Belgium, welcome and hospitality of villages, 27, 28, 29 - - —— re-entered by French, 96 - - —— departure from, 140 - - Biesmérée, bivouac at, 38 - - Billancourt, infantry action near, 87 - - Bonneuil-en-Valois, surprise attack by Germans at, 51, 52 - - Bülow, Count von, 60 - - - C - - Calonne-sur-la-Lys, 96 - - Cary, General Langle de, 44, 71 - - Cavalry, French, equipment of, 23 - - Chapin, Major, 106 - - Charleroi, 39 - - Chasseurs-à-cheval, charge of, 45 - - Chatelin, Lieut., 39, 67, 82, 127, 129 - - Chauvenet, Lieut., killed, 35 - - Chocques, enemy sighted at, 90 - - —— artillery action at, 91 - - Clarques, return of French troops to, 112 - - Clère, Lieut., 18, 123 - - Compiègne, forest of, 63 - - —— ambushed in, 63-5 - - —— adventures in, 65-9 - - Coxyde, 112 - - - D - - Dangel, Sergeant-Major, death of, 64 - - Desonney, Lieut., 106 - - Dinant, siege of, by Germans, 36 - - —— arrival of French wounded from, 37 - - Dragoon, funeral of a, 124-5 - - - E - - Epehy, arrival at, 41 - - —— burning of, by Germans, 41 - - Estaires, evacuation of, 93 - - —— attack at, 95 - - —— cemetery of, 94 - - Estrée-Saint-Denis, 84, 87 - - d’Estrey, General, 71 - - - F - - Florennes, arrival at, 37 - - Foch, General, 60, 71 - - —— address by, 141-3 - - —— army of, 44 - - Folies, 90 - - Franchet, General, 71 - - French, General Lord John, 71 - - Fuéminville, 35 - - - G - - Gembloux, retreat from, 31 - - —— triumphal entry into, 39 - - Germans, atrocities of, 32-4, 76-7, 83-4 - - —— cavalry of, 31, 34, 87 - - —— flight of, 34 - - —— retreat of, 43 - - Gilocourt, 82, 86 - - Gorgue, La, 95 - - Grossain killed, 157 - - - H - - Hausen, 60 - - Hill 70, 145 - - Hougled, entry of, by French, 97 - - —— infantry and artillery attacks at, 98-101 - - - J - - Johannes Father, quotation from, 150 - - Jouillié, Major, 49, 56, 83 - - - L - - Lametz, Captain, 139 - - Landelies, arrival at, 40 - - Laperrade, 18 - - Lens road, French advance towards, 146 - - —— German lines carried near, 154 - - —— redan blown up, 149 - - Liége, arrival of French dragoons at, 31 - - Lille-Arras, front of, 145 - - Lombaertzyde, bombardment of, 128 - - Loos, French attack at, 150-5 - - —— German counter-attack at, 159 - - —— preparations for attack at, 144-7 - - Lubeké, 35 - - Lys, bridge of, evacuated, 93 - - - M - - Magrin, Lieut., 18, 102, 104, 105 - - Mahot, Captain, 113, 116 - - Maindreville, M. de, German atrocities at château of, 83 - - Marne, battle of, 43 - - Maugenot, 139, 160 - - —— report to, 149 - - Maunoury, General, army of, 44, 47, 71 - - Mazingarbe, relieved trenches at, 144 - - —— divisional dressing station at, 162 - - Montcalm killed, 36 - - Muno, arrival of French cavalry at, 26 - - - N - - Nesle, infantry action near, 87 - - Nieuport-Ville, road to, 113 - - —— bombardment of, 114-17, 119 - - —— billeted at, 116-18 - - —— scenes at, 114-19 - - Nœux-les-Mines, wounded sent to, 144, 163 - - Noyelette, resting at, 144 - - - O - - Oise River, crossing of, 84 - - Ostdinkerque, 113 - - Outersteene, Belgian manifestations to French, 96 - - - P - - Paris, retreat of French cavalry towards, 41 - - Parvillers, 88 - - Petit, Corporal, 154 - - Polignac, 18 - - Poperinghe, 131 - - Prussians, capture of Staff Officers, 48 - - - R - - Règues, Lieut., 156 - - Rheims Cathedral, 14, 16 - - —— departure from, 13 - - —— scenes at, 20, 21, 23, 25 - - Roberts, Lord, funeral of, 110-12 - - Robillot, Colonel, 21, 24 - - - S - - Saint-Martin, bivouac at, 38 - - Saint-Omer, 110 - - Salverte, Captain de, 56, 68, 82, 84 - - Staden, village of, fighting at, 97, 108 - - Stivalet, 147-8 - - - T - - Tarragon, Captain de, 56, 65, 83, 85, 86, 102, 103, 104 - - —— death of, 105 - - Taube drops bombs, 50 - - Taubes at Gembloux, 39 - - Teint, 58 - - Troène, fighting at, 45 - - - U - - Uhlans, 35, 56, 57, 62 - - - V - - Verberie, rally of French troops, at, 79, 80, 82 - - —— scenes at, 74-84 - - Vigoureux, Captain, 112, 117 - - Villers-Carbonel, artillery combat at, 41 - - —— in flames, 41 - - Villers-Cotterets, forest of, 49-51 - - —— loss of French machine-guns at, 50 - - —— fighting at, 51-4 - - —— in hiding in, 54-7 - - —— retreat from, 57-9 - - Von Kluck, General, army of, 47 - - - W - - Walloon district, the, 26 - - - Y - - Ypres, 131 - - —— Cloth Hall at, 132 - - —— Cathedral, at, 132 - - —— scenes at, 132-3 - - —— in the trenches near, 134-40 - - Yser, 74, 123 - - - Z - - Zonnebeck, 133 - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Impressions and Experiences of a -French Trooper, 1914-1915, by Christian Mallet - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPRESSIONS, EXPERIENCES OF FRENCH TROOPER *** - -***** This file should be named 62629-0.txt or 62629-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/6/2/62629/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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